Last week we collaborated with AWA Global and Discover Financial Services to run an in-person Meetup in London. We introduced Agile Animalia (AKA the zoo game), which is a real-time collaborative mega game, that explores cross-team collaboration.
Summary of the game
Participants begin in teams, with the collective goal of creating a successful paper zoo. At the start of the game, each team is told that they are responsible for a particular task (e.g. acquiring animals, education, perimeters, safety, etc). As the game progresses and the zoo grows over a series or rounds (or iterations), participants have to figure out for themselves how best to work together in order to build a successful zoo with happy animals, staff and customers.
What did we learn from Agile Animalia?
- Transformation is NOT easy
- Change can make people deeply uncomfortable at first
AND… - Humans are incredibly good at problem solving
- When we work together, our problem-solving ability improves exponentially
- This is especially true with complex problems, where the outcome cannot be predicted
- Working together to adapt to change and solve problems can be exciting, fun and rewarding!
The Agile Animalia zoo game was the perfect way to illustrate how the Enterprise Change Pattern (our coaching strategy for organisational change) can be used to increase ownership, reduce risk, and result in a perfect fit of change to context. In addition to running the game, Carl Rogers shared with us his experience of using the Enterprise Change Pattern with great success at Discover, where he is a senior manager in the Agile Enablement team.
Request a copy of Agile Animalia (the zoo game)
Want more?
Let’s talk! We can run a workshop like this in your organisation. Agile Animalia (the zoo game) is a great way to make sure that everyone gets a say and feels excited and motivated by your transformation (rather than anxious and uncomfortable). It also illustrates how collaborative change leads to successful outcomes.
Not to boast, but our game score went from 11.75 points in the first iteration, to a whopping 70 in the final round. That’s a 495% improvement!