Agile Facilitation Techniques

Agile Facilitation is more than breaking the ice and conducting exercises to build teams. Moreover, facilitation activities in an organization connect people with one another with the help of agile methodology, collaboration and communication. There is an underlying belief that skills for effective facilitation do have the power to influence success of implementing Scrum methodology. This process is widely undertaken by the best facilitation techniques who is incharge of creating an environment where communication and collaboration leads to better decision making.

There are many best facilitation techniques that anyone with Scrum knowledge can employ for improving Scrum. Among agile team facilitation techniques some of the techniques are robust when it comes to encouraging diverse perspectives while bringing teams together to reach an unanimous consensus.

On the other hand, there are other techniques which help create a space completely safe where you come together to share an understanding of how agile facilitation is helpful in an organization.

As a Scrum certified professional you’ll work as a process manager, and behaviorist who is tasked with roles such as:

• Understanding the process and dependencies required to facilitate the meetings
• Identify risks and opportunities and present the same to other team members
• Measure Value Stream Delivery process and take charge to ensure improvements are made
• Manage conflicts between agile teams and departments
• Stimulate communication effectively
• Help the team to maintain focus on the collective goals 

Scrum Masters and other team members with Scrum knowledge are equipped with facilitation skills to help organizations guide their teams better through mutual understanding. The contributions from Scrum Facilitators leads to efficient Scrum roles, optimization of skills related to problem-solving that further leads to aligning teams together.

Having a right toolbox will help facilitate techniques used as a toolbox and understand how these techniques will be applied in different circumstances.

What are the vital Agile Facilitation Techniques?

Given that it seems simple, any professional taking the Agile Facilitator role will acknowledge that it's not easy to accomplish. The following are the best facilitation techniques which an Agile facilitator must adhere to:

• Dot Voting:

It is for certain that an Agile facilitator is going to be responsible for designing and curating meetings. It doesn’t matter if the role of an Agile facilitator is carried out by a marketing team, software developers, or even a business analyst. One thing common among these professionals is the drive to keep the organization together by designing meetings to provide a sense of voice for each team member. In addition to this, the facilitator must procure consent from each team member in all meetings.

With Dot Voting, all the ideas of each team member are taken into consideration, and they’ve to arrange and rank prior to choose one idea and discard all the others. Once this practice is carried out in all meetings, people are going to gain the right motivation to move forward towards a better tomorrow.

• Spider Webbing:

As the name suggests, this technique is sort of like a fun-filled game. With this technique, you’ll draw your own set of rules such as proceedings. You will gain insights into flow among departments and systems. At the same time, you’ll also gain leaders and mentor specific people among the team. This technique is different as it uses more pictures and less words.

• Affinity Mapping:

By the looks of it, Affinity Mapping is regarded as the most used and exponentially effective techniques for Agile Facilitation. Affinity Mapping ensures ideas are collected, organized, and rationalized side by side. Moreover, the technique is carried out even if facilitators procure ideas from different participants. The technique might be a little dated, but the method works every time!

• Thumb Voting:

Thumb voting is yet another agile team facilitation technique which has a striking resemblance to Fist of Five Voting technique. As we explore Fist of Five Voting, you’ll understand the marginal difference between the both, i.e., voters have the province to either give a thumbs down, side or up for the ideas which are suggested during the meeting. If a team doesn’t have much time or there is a time constraint, this technique works without a hassle. In addition to this, you’ll also find this technique extremely useful when you’re working under duress.

• Fist of Five Voting:

Let’s consider you’re a facilitator of Agile methodology in a meeting and want to reach to a quick voting among all team members. In such a situation, Fist of Five Voting is regarded to be one of the best facilitation techniques which you can follow. Following this technique will ensure everyone’s ideas are heard loud and clear. Upon expressing the idea, other participants will be sought into voting in and also against the idea of raising hands. However, the process is not straightforward, there is a small ‘twist.’ Each vote casted here will require the voter to put on the weightage on an individual’s hand raised.

0-finger(s): This suggests that the ideas aren’t supported. The only problem with this voting mode is that, once a single fist or 0-finger is raised, the idea will be dismissed without a thought.

1-finger: This suggests that the group involved can move forward if even one finger is lifted, that means the idea is too good to proceed with, but they will have to resolve an issue as they move forward with the idea.

2-fingers: Two fingers suggests, people in the meeting are good to go with the idea, but it isn’t a favourite one.

3-fingers: This suggests people have liked the idea and they find it satisfactory to move forward.

4-fingers: It suggests that idea is loved and people are excited about the idea

5-fingers: It means, they love the idea and will give their everything towards implementing it.

Final Words

Facilitation is an important skill for a scrum master to master as it oversees the interactions and dynamics of different events. Facilitators are allowed to use any format or technique they appease, but there isn’t a viable solution that a verdict can be reached in one try. All the more, this is the reason why different organizations use different techniques to understand the outcomes and purpose of each meeting workshop.

Additionally, during the meeting, it is important for the facilitator to help everyone understand the objective and the content; in addition to this, they will also require a toolkit of different techniques to create a safe space for everyone where a consensus can be reached.