This exercise was co-created as part of a collaboration day between Geoff Watts and Paul Goddard.
Timing
- 60 minutes
Materials
- A lot of Lego pieces
- (Optional) A Digital Camera and Photo printer
Instructions
Preparation
Ask the group to come up with:
- a person from history,
- a color and
- an object.
Construct a title out of these e.g. The Story of Napoleon and the Yellow Pillow
Set the challenge:
- To create a storyboard of this story by building scenes made from Lego.
- There will be 3 sprints of 12 minutes (2m plan, 7m build & 3m review)
- Each sprint must contain a start and end of the story and be in line with the vision (title)
- Each scene must contain some action
If there are multiple teams playing:
- At the end of Sprint, ask each team to think of a location and then give Team 1’s location to Team 2 and so on. This location must then be incorporated into their story.
- At the end of Sprint Two, ask them to think of a leisure activity or a secondary character which will then be given to another team
If only one team is playing, throw in a location or character, etc. yourself
Learning Points:
- How a vision + self-organization can create a successful product
- Refactoring is necessary (and a good thing)
- Getting something done (vertical slice) each sprint (start and finish)
- Do something simple first then embellish
- How self-organising teams can be very creative
- Teams must be able to accommodate change while maintaining a consistent theme
- Seeing results at the end of the sprint is useful and motivational
- There should be a sense of pride in what they create
Variations:
- Expand the “definition of done” to include a photograph of each scene
- Incorporate feedback from “stakeholders” (the other teams) into the planning of the next Sprint
