This document provides guidance on mastering facilitation skills. It begins with an introduction to facilitation versus coaching and some basic facilitation principles. It then provides various visualization tips that can boost effectiveness when facilitating meetings. These include tips for prioritizing work, drawing ideas, using statistics to plan logistics, and challenging assumptions. The document also discusses how to prepare for and facilitate different Scrum ceremonies like planning, daily stand-ups, reviews and retrospectives. Overall, the document aims to help participants improve their facilitation skills for leading more effective meetings.

1. MASTERING THE ART OF
FACILITATION
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4. Meetings
From
Hell

5. Purpose
Outcomes
Impact
Help participants improve their facilitation skills for
better meetings
At least one “aha” moment
Acquire tool/s to use in meetings
Appetite to learn more on facilitation
Excitement, Satisfaction

6. Some Working Agreement
If you want to be here
act like you want to be here

7. Consensus, Not Democracy
Hell Yes! O.K
No Way!
New Idea

8. More Working Agreements Examples:
The team starts and ends the day together
Being on time is critical
The team stays 100% committed and 100% focused, no
interruptions
All wireless devices on silent mode
No room for finger pointing
No veto power from outside the team
It’s your responsibility to say when you object or disagree
What I say in the room stays in the room

9. Hand up and silence

10. TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction +
Facilitation vs. Coaching
Basic facilitation principles
Visualization Tips
Facilitation in scrum
ceremonies
Q&A + feedback

16. This is my Life :)

17. FACILITATIONFACIL

18. FACILITATIONFACIL

19. Facilitation Definition
The act of helping other people
to deal with a process without
getting directly involved in the
process, discussion, etc.

20. Coaching Definition
A form of personal development:
The act of helping others to learn
their way in achieving a specific
personal or professional goal

21. Coaching vs. Facilitation
Why does it matter?

22. 4 Principles to start with:
EnthusiasmBoundaries
Time
BoxingBe prepared

23. Be Prepared

24. Purpose
Outcomes
Impact
Help participants improve their facilitation skills for
better meetings
At least one “aha” moment
Acquire tool/s to use in meetings
Appetite to learn more on facilitation
Excitement, Satisfaction

25. Set the Stage
Good Practice:
• Time box agenda
• Parking Lot board
• Working Agreement to start with
• Be on time

26. Questions Bank - before the meeting
Who should participate? (Get the whole system)
Where? Seating arrangements
What is the desired duration of the meeting?
Physical accessories: white board, projector, special (e.g.
planning poker cards)
What activities are suitable to “explore the whole elephant”?
Prerequisites (e.g. prioritized backlog)
Which meeting structure to use? (e.g. 5 steps)

27. During the Meeting - Feel the Room
Is everyone participating actively?
What can everyone agree on?
(handle disagreements later)
Let people have active roles during the meeting
Is there any silent disagreement? cynicism?
Who is dominant in the group?
Who is withdrawn?
Who looks bored?
Make room for all views

28. Control what you can; Let go everything else
What do we want?
People behave according to goals
What can’t we control?
People’s behavior
What can we control?
Setting, purpose, boundaries, preparation, …

29. EXERCISE What can you
control before
the meeting
starts?

30. BE PREPAREDCreate a setting for success
1) Purpose 2) Outcomes 3) Decisions
4) Questions 5) Impact 6) Set the Stage
1) Purpose
4) Questions
2) Outcomes 3) Decisions
5) Impact 6) Set the Stage

32. Boundaries

33. Boundaries
Gives you sense of self
Enables to decide how you want to be treated by others
Enables to make decisions that serve and support you
Helps to prevent double bind situation
Creates mutual language
Why?
“Freedom within Boundaries”

34. Boundaries
DoD (Definition of Done)
DoA (Definition of Awesome)
Working Agreements
Sprint / Release / Other time boxes
Using phrases as indicators
Examples:

35. Time Boxing

36. Time Boxing
Allocate a certain amount of time to an activity in advance
Visual
Plan in advance
Focus
End time box: “hard” vs. “soft”

37. EXERCISE - NEXT #APIL MEETUP
Come up with the next meetups
In each group:
- Discussion lead
- Time keeper
- Presenter
- Note taker

38. EXERCISE - NEXT #APIL MEETUP
Let’s Review

39. Reflection

40. 5 steps Facilitation:
OPENING GATHER DATA
DECIDE WHAT TO DO CLOSING
GENERATE INSIGHTS

42. Enthusiasm

43. Enthusiasm
It’s contagious
If you are not enthusiastic - how can you expect it from
others?
You are the “salesperson” - do you believe in what you are
selling?
Reduce cynicism
Why?
“Lead by example”

44.
TILL YOU MAKE IT!
Option #1: Fake it

45. How it feels like
Option #2: Learn

46. 10 VISUALIZATION
TIPS TO BOOST
EFFECTIVENESS

47. Why visualization tips?

48. A white house with a door and
a yellow matt. A rectangle
window right to the door. The
roof is triangular but not
symmetric. There is a chimney
on the right side of the roof,
blowing smoke. The sun is
shining above the roof, left to
the house, and there is grass
around the house. A brown
picked fence on its right side
missing a board in the middle.
HOUSE #1
A white house with a door. A
rectangle window right to the
door split into 3 rectangles. The
roof is triangular but not
symmetric. There is a chimney
on the right side of the roof,
blowing smoke. The sun is
shining above the roof, left to
the house and is partially
clouded, and there is grass
around the house. A brown
picked fence on its right.
HOUSE #2

51. Tip #1:
Igniting collaboration by visualizing prioritization
PBI a
PBI b
PBI c
PBI d
PBI e
PBI f
Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 3 Criteria 4 Grade
++ + 0 +
0 0 ++ +++
0 ++ ++ +
+++ 0 + +
+ + ++ ++
+ ++ +++ +

52. Tip #1:
Igniting
collaboration
by visualizing
prioritization

53. Tip #2:
Talking in
the air?

54. Tip #2:
Talking in
the air?
Draw it
if you care!

55. A white house with a door
and a yellow matt. A
rectangle window right to the
door. The roof is triangular but
not symmetric. There is a
chimney on the right side of
the roof, blowing smoke. The
sun is shining above the roof,
left to the house, and there is
grass around the house. A
brown picked fence on its
right side missing a board in
the middle.
HOUSE #1

56. Tip# 3:
Getting (the right) things done

57. Tip# 3:
Getting (the right) things done

58. Tip# 4:
Using statistics
to adapt logistics

59. Days
Tip# 4:
Using
statistics
to adapt
logistics

60. Tip#5:
Making the bigger picture appealing

61. Plan
New
Tip#6:
Challenging
assumptions

62. Tip #7:
Sticking to colors

63. Tip #8:
Mapping constrains to visualize alternatives

68. Tip #9:
Clearing
a mental fog

69. Tip #9:
Clearing
a mental fog

70. Tip #10:
Delegating
meeting
facilitation

71. 500 Euro worth of
Beyblades Not in
use!

73. SCRUM PROCESS OVERVIEW
3 Roles:
Product owner
Scrum Master
Team
4 Ceremonies :
Sprint Planning
Daily
Sprint review
Retrospective
3 Artifacts:
Product Backlog
Sprint Backlog
Burndown Charts

74. How would you prepare for the following
ceremonies?
- Refinement (PBR)
- Sprint Review
- Retrospective
- Planning
- Daily Scrum

75. Product Backlog
Refinement = Grooming

76. 1. Purpose
2. Outcomes
3. Impact
Refine the product backlog for the next 2-3 sprints
All refined PBIs are viable, estimated, clear and can
be “Done” by the dev team within one Sprint
Excited (or at least engaged), committed for the
goal, worth time spent, trustful

77. Fishbowl
Role play - if you were him, explain what made you think
that?
Talking stick
(+ Perfection Game)
Match
estimation-technique/s
to the situation

78. Fishbowl Discussion
In the aquarium, only 2 fish can “swim” together
Whenever a new fish jumps into the aquarium another fish
must jump out
All the people staring at the aquarium must be silent in
order to hear the fish talking :)

79. Planning

80. 1. Purpose
2. Outcomes
3. Impact
Part 1: Teams own their Sprint Backlog based on their
recent experience
Part I: List of top PBIs based on velocity; Part II: Visualize
breakdown of these PBIs and confirm feasibility of plan
Teammates energized, committed, accountable for
their plan

81. Planning part 1:
- Sticky notes on a wall standing up
- Thought provoking questions
Planning part 2:
- Splitting to two groups + review
- Open the code

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Simulation
BYOM

83. EXERCISE - BRING YOUR OWN MEETING
Purpose, Outcomes, Impact, Preparation
In each group:
- Discussion lead
- Time keeper
- Presenter
- Note taker

84. EXERCISE - BRING YOUR OWN MEETING
Let’s Review

85. Daily Scrum

86. Please Download and open Kahoot:
Daily

87. 1. Purpose
2. Outcomes
3. Impact
Inspect and adjust work until end of sprint
Share bottlenecks, problems and dependencies;
Visual board/s and Burndown chart/s are updated
Sense of shared responsibility and accountability
for remaining work

88. Who starts? Remain silent!
Step 2: Randomly or recommended -
When appropriate: Based on priority of PBIs
A Game
Suggest the team to do daily before
lunch time
Avoid eye contact
Burndown chart
Litmus Paper

89. Daily Probing Questions
Progress:
1. Is any of our work invisible?
2. Is anyone assigned too many tasks?
3. Should we act on backlog items “owned” by absent team
members?
4. Are there backlog items that we can unblock?
5. Are there backlog items we expected to finish by now?
6. Are there any bottlenecks in the queues (WiP is exceeded)?

90. Daily Probing Questions
Looking forward:
1. Is there a demand for backlog refinement (grooming)?
2. Are upcoming backlog items blocked somehow?
3. Are we clear about what's next?
4. Are we doing everything we can to minimize waiting
time?

91. Daily - another option: Game
Challenge the team with a game:
One team member observe the daily stand up from aside
If she/he is able to identify a problem that others didn’t notice
she/he wins!
The winner can select one thing that all the team member will
must do and take a video of that (e.g. dance crazy)

92. Sprint Review
Show & Tell
Bazaar Review

93. 1. Purpose
2. Outcomes
3. Impact
Get a real sense of what was achieved
Feedback on working software delivered during the
sprint
Ownership of results; Sense of pride when it’s good;
Sense of shame when it’s not

94. • Review with vs. Demo to
• No slideware! Always prefer working software
• Encourage teammates to present
• Sprint Bazaar - a self organized, teammates-led way to
review
• Show only Done-Done work
• Get the whole system in - invite others outside the team

95. Sprint Retrospective
‘The greatest enemy of great is good enough’

96. 1. Purpose
2. Outcomes
3. Impact
Tune and adjust in order to become more effective
One or two S.M.A.R.T experiments
Sense real teamwork; Re-energized, Optimistic

97. Brainstorming rules:
• Suspend judgment
• Encourage wild ideas
• Quantity not quality
• Build on other ideas
• Use magic wand
Suggest the worst idea ever!!!!

100. The facts, just the facts
Brightness and optimism. explore the positives
Signifies feelings, hunches and intuition
creativity; the possibilities, alternatives, and new
ideas
Judgment - why something may not work. Spot the
difficulties and dangers;
The facilitator

101. Dot Voting
Good practice: 3 dots per person
If there are more than 10 issues:
Dots = #issues/3 (round up)

102. RETROSPECTIVE
If you cannot avoid offshore teams..
Real time board
Lino
Go reflect

103. Facilitation skills
• An active, unbiased, member of learning process
• Intervene in a way that adds creativity to a discussion
• Following an agreed agenda
• Time keeping
• Flexible
• Assertive
• Challenge assumptions
• Have fun

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106. “THE VALUE OF
AN IDEA LIES IN
THE USING OF IT”
Thomas Edison