practice agile facilitation

Hey guys, Anatoly from Define Agile here.

Today’s question is, “How do I practice my Agile facilitation?”

That’s a great question. If in a company that is interested in Agile, the easiest way to practice your Agile facilitation is to talk to your boss and say, “Let’s do some retrospectives.” A retrospective is a best way to practice Agile facilitation. You can incorporate some exercises – they’re cool, they’re fun, and it gives you a lot of experience.

Say to your boss: “I want to make sure that everybody’s happy with how they are doing things. Can I take an initiative and do a retrospective? We’re going to meet with the team and then talk about what works, what doesn’t work for us.”

When you get a green light –  find some good exercises  ( this website would be an example of some exercises).

What if your company does not want to practice Agile, or  you don’t want to practice on your colleagues (which I recommend is the best way) ?  Get a couple of friends and then do a retrospective with them about your friendship. It is important to practice as much as possible.

You can also do it for your goals and plans. If you want to plan a vacation – do the planning in a retrospective format – “Where I want to go ? What I want to do ?”. Collect information from your spouse and kids. You can definitely do that. Then after the vacation, you might have a retrospective. Talk about what worked well, what didn’t work, and  what do you want to improve.

So, I highly recommend to do it as much as possible because the more you practice it, the better you become.