DEV Community: Leo Bastian

Oh Yeah - An Energetic Meeting Check-In/Icebreaker (v2)

Leo Bastian — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 17:01:38 +0000

Energetic and fun check-in/icebreaker format, for any meeting or workshop. It is based on the core protocol check-in. The "Oh Yeah" will stick! When will you try it?

The purpose of check-ins/icebreakers is to help people connect and open them up for better participation and energy.

Steps

Briefly state how you're feeling or pass
Finish up by saying: "Now I am energized!"
Everyone else answers: "Oh Yeah" (mind context ...)
Decide the next person to check in

Encourage people to really mean it and emphasize when saying "Now I am energized!" and "Oh Yeah" during step 2 and 3.

Be mindful during "Oh Yeah" step. Each person's context of step 1 will be different. People might have experienced the best or worst day of their life's, a good or bad day. I recommend transforming it to just "Oh ...", if it was a strong negative feeling.

I frequently observe emotional reframing: People who started with negative emotions during step 1 shifted those and their focus onto positive things and connected to the present. Some participants found things they looked forward to and mentioned those.

Recommended Group size up to 15-20 people, otherwise put people into breakout sessions. This is based on my energy level, when I perceived my enthusiasm drop saying "Now I am energized" and "Oh Yeah".

Using Miro? Grab the template here: https://miro.com/miroverse/energetic-checkin-template/

Other variants

You can play around during special occasions.
Around end of year I used:

"Now I am in 2024" instead of "Now I am energized"
"Happy New Year" instead of "Oh Yeah"

Additional ideas:

"Aye Aye Captain" if you're running a Sailboat Retrospective.
Shorten step 1 to "Say 1-3 words representing how you feel" instead of "Briefly state how you're feeling or pass"

Format Feedback - How did participants perceive it?

The group sizes ranged from 4-25 people. I did it with the same team multiple times and also with teams that didn't know me before, so first time contact.

The check-in was fun, enabled them to connect, resulted in high energy levels and perceived ease. The "Oh yeah" also stuck and even first encounter teams started to occasionally drop an "Oh Yeah" during every day interaction.

One person gave mixed feedback, I think it fits perfectly to the check-in:

Slightly embarrassing, cool and somewhat esoteric.

How it came to be

Originally I asked people during retrospectives about "What was Oh Yeah during last sprint?". During Liberating Structures meetup preparations we often use the Core Protocol's check-in. I somehow made the connection, tried to add more energy to the welcoming atmosphere of the Core Protocol check-in and surprise it worked wonders.

Be invited to leave feedback, your experiences with it or questions in the comments! Also happy to connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leo-bastian-359b0b161/

Blog post version 1: https://dev.to/leobastian/oh-yeah-an-energetic-check-in-revisitation-of-core-protocol-om1
Sources: Photo by Charlota Blunarova on Unsplash

"Oh Yeah" An Energetic Check-In (Revisitation of Core Protocol)

Leo Bastian — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 14:18:07 +0000

At the start of meetings, workshops, trainings, meetups etc. you may have encountered participants saying "I feel ..." and "I'm in", followed by everyone else saying "Welcome". What you encountered was McCarthy's Core Protocol check-in.

To me this often feels like being in some kind of sect and as a very analytical person, I don't feel energized or need more to get my mental juices running. So I decided to experiment and play around with it, the outcome: An "Oh Yeah" variant. I must warn you though, the "Oh Yeah" will stick.

In this blog post you'll learn about:

Core Protocol check-in
My "Oh Yeah" variant
How this thing came to be

I encourage you to experiment with given methods. However, first master the origin, then adjust it and create something new.

Let's start with the Core Protocol ...

Core Protocol Check-In

The purpose of this check-in is to create a safe space for everyone and to connect them to the present.

Speaker says “I feel [one or more of MAD, SAD, GLAD, AFRAID].” Speaker may provide a brief explanation. Or if others have already checked in, the speaker may say “I pass.”
Speaker says “I’m in.” This signifies that Speaker intends to behave according to the Core Commitments.
Listeners respond, “Welcome.”

Now you know the Core Protocol check-in! This is the broken down variant, in the Core Protocol you can also find the Core Commitments.

Things I want to point out:
Emphasis on single word emotions like "MAD/GLAD" and a possible brief explanation, without the use of qualifiers such as a little, super or extremely. You may pass and say nothing. "I pass" and "I'm in" imply abiding by Core and Pass Commitments (you can find them in the Core Protocol).

"Oh Yeah" Variant

The goal was to add more energy, in addition to the welcoming atmosphere of the Core Protocol's check-in. This is how it goes...

Shortly state how you're feeling or pass
Finish up with: "Now I am energized!"
Everyone else answers: "Oh Yeah" (mind context ...)
Decide the next person to check in by saying: "Next person to do sth is name." - e.g. The next person to jump for joy is Alice. (be nice or joke)

Encourage people to really mean it and emphasize when saying "Now I am energized!" and "Oh Yeah" during step 2 and 3. Your "Oh Yeah" might become just an "Oh ...", depending on the context of step 1.

The context of step 1 might be positive or negative. People might have experienced the worst or best day of their life, had a bad day or similar - Be mindful during "Oh Yeah". I recommend transforming it to just "Oh ...", if it was a negative day.

I recommend to do it with up to 15-20 people. This is based on my energy level, when I perceived my enthusiasm drop saying "Now I am energized" and "Oh Yeah".

Feedback and Observations

So how did participants perceive it? The group sizes ranged from 4-25 people. I did it with the same team multiple times and also with teams that didn't know me before, so first time contact.

The check-in enabled them to have fun, connection, a high energy level and perceived ease. The "Oh yeah" also stuck and even first encounter team started to occasionally drop an "Oh Yeah" during every day interaction.

One person gave mixed feedback, I think it fits perfectly to the check-in:

Slightly embarrassing, cool and somewhat esoteric.

Regarding esoteric, that feeling is likely due to being unfamiliar with mindful language, where we connect to the present and explicitly frame things.

Next to participant's feedback I observed: People who started with negative emotions during step 1, where they had a bad day or a terrible experience, shifted those and their focus onto positive things and connected to the present. Some participants found things they looked forward to and mentioned those.

Other variants

You can play around during special occasions.
Around end of year I used:

Shortly state how you're feeling.
Finish up with "Now I am in 2021"
Everyone else answers "Happy New Year!"
Decide the next person by saying "Next person to work on their new year's resolution is name."

How it came to be

Sources

Core Protocol check-in https://thecoreprotocols.org/protocols/checkin.html
Cover photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Learn Team Building via Journey Lines

Leo Bastian — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 08:05:58 +0000

I recently did Journey Lines from Lyssa Adkins with a team remotely using Miro and will introduce you to the exercise. The team, consisting of 5 people, worked together for some time when I joined. As far as I knew and figured out: They never did a team building exercise. So we did one.

During my professional life and as working student I rarely experienced a team building exercise specifically for a single team. Exercises that happened included the full company or multiple teams. Why should you bother with team building at all? Although this might depend on your company's culture - The feedback from the team sums this up, this is why:

Such a cool exercise. We learned so much about each other in such a short time.

Even a team working together since multiple months learned new things about each other!

Part of communication trainings or related studies are usually Tuckman's stages of group development (forming, storming, norming and performing), also known as "team clock". I can guess or interpret why team building is not systematically applied: Time, not deemed worth the trouble or benefit, no systematic approach or others. Not everything needs to be systematically done or applied by the book, however models were invented for reasons (I hope so). My suggestion: Especially during remote times you should bother with team building and also afterwards.

Journey Lines is explained by Lyssa Adkins in her book Coaching Agile Teams. I found the exercise very useful and in this article you find how I did it and what timeboxes were used.

Let's do it, this is how it looks:

Concept of Journey Lines - a graph with +/-/time, a line and Post-its

How to

1. Introduce the exercise

Introduce why you're doing this and the concept of Journey Lines, by means of an example image e.g. see above.

You're doing this to improve collaboration by kickstarting your team to progress faster through Tuckman's stages of group development. Collaboration is improved by fostering trust. If I don't know anything about you: How or in what regard should I support or why should I help you? Thus bring people together.

In this exercise participants will present their life's journey. Invite to share not only working lives, but also personal aspects, since both influence each other (work-life balance). Participants will place events on a line, when the line goes up, the event was pleasant, if it goes down unpleasant.

Now kickstart your exercise with the next step!

2. Present your own Journey Line (8 min + ~3 min, optional)

As a facilitator you can prepare your own Journey Line beforehand and present it, before anyone else creates theirs. This way you set a safe space, open up participants to share more of their lives and give an example about how this works, a first "test run" so to speak. This step is optional and consists of steps 4 and 5, read them for guidance.

3. Create personal Journey Line (10 min)

Journey Line template

Ask participants to create their Journey Line. There are multiple approaches: First start by writing Post-its, arrange them on the diagram and draw a line to connect all. Second start by drawing the line and then add Post-its. I prefer the Post-its first approach. This gives you more flexibility, you don't have to redraw the line when you forgot something or re-weight events. Either prepare diagrams beforehand or let participants draw.

Remind to mix personal and private life, both influence each other and are part of the whole life.

You haven't done step 2 and plan to connect with the participants? Then you as a facilitator should also create one ;).

4. Everyone presents their Journey Line (8 min/participant)

Presentation time, grab popcorn! One participant presents their Journey Line, others listen and note down anything sticking out: Skills that matter for the project, interesting or useful talents, experiences or values making the presenter who they are.

5. Present things that stood out (~3 min)

Participants briefly state what stood out and put it on the presenter's Journey Line. This step can turn into an extensive conversation, either increase the timebox or remind to make precise and short observation statements. My recommendation: Do a mixture of both, or follow up on the Journey Line with another format to enable intense exchange.

This step can generate e.g:

Cool I also studied there
Has background x, this is valuable for our topic y (metrics, * cookies, adaptive frontend …)
You got back up again every time you fell.
You never compromised in any of your decisions.

The next person presents their Journey Line, back to step 4. Repeat until you run out of participants or popcorn.

6. What do you take with you? (5 min)

I ask the above, because I am interested in takeaways or patterns. Participants have 1 minute time to write down their thoughts, afterwards they put them up on a board with a brief explanation.

The last Journey Line exercise I did generated:

It seems like we all grew a lot when something unexpected happened
Really awesome to learn everyone's previous work experience

Final words

Awesome and easy exercise - the feedback I got from the team sums it up. May your "Journey Line" continue. Thank you Lyssa Adkins for creating this!