Story: slicing stories as teambuilding

December 11th, 2020

This is part of a larger Story: slicing stories

 


 

It's pretty easy to push one's opinion though about smaller slices. And it's even easier if there is multiple people sharing that view. But that doesn't build the team, instead it damages it a bit.

 

Feeling misunderstood, feeling like your opinion does not matter, self-silencing your ideas. All of these are serious withdrawals from someone's Model: Emotional Bank account. This can happen occasionally, and when the balance is high enough, it isn't that harmful. But if it's the default way decisions are made, it will drain the balance, eroding trust, safety, teamwork understanding... All the good things.

 

It took us 2 half days, for a relatively simple story. And it was totally worth it. It was an amazing experience. We were exploring new ways of prepping work. And we managed to slice it really thin. But most importantly, we took the time for everyone to feel heard and understood. This injected a lot of trust into the team and created a foundation for future discussions and team interactions.