Recently, I started a new role with SP Digital as an agile specialist. Most of my time is spent working with teams trying to bring the best out of them.
Since I received several board/card games for Christmas, I thought I would try them out while working. If all else fails, it should still be fun playing a game together.
Using The Singaporean Dream card game, its gameplay mechanics are reused as a way of giving feedback towards team members and for team building. Just like any other fun retrospectives!
What you need to get started
- A deck of The Singaporean Dream
- Space where the team can sit together facing each other
- Full team members present
Here’s how we did it
Step 1: Select a Singaporean Personality
Unlike the rulebook where all players pick a Personality Card at random, we started by having each member of the team select a Personality that they feel represents themselves or one that they can relate.
After everyone has selected their Personality, they have to present and explain to the group why that Personality is selected. This warmup/icebreaker is to get the players to share something about themselves. It allows them to get ready for the next section of the retrospective.
Step 2: Time to Play
The objective of the game is to gain as many Dream Cards as possible. We have modified some of the rules to cater to our retrospective needs, and we added a small prize for the winner. Here are the rules we used.
- Everyone starts with 5 cards from the Action Pile, along with their Personality Card.
- The player who came into the room last starts the game.
- At the start of a player’s turn, the player will draw 2 action cards and play 3 actions per turn. The different actions are the different types of questions or feedback that the player has to give. These actions are described below.
4 different type of actions
- Place any amount of Cash Cards into your bank (on the table). For this action, identify the positive feedback you’d like to give the person or the team. E.g. “I appreciate you helping me put on the final touches on the landing page.”
- Play an action card (e.g. steal/gain dreams, steal/gain cash, gain dreams/cards) from your hand. For this action, propose an experiment or action item that might benefit the team. E.g. “I’d like for us to try pair programming on Monday and Wednesday from 10:00 to 12:00.”
- Buy the topmost Dream Card from Dream Pile with Cash Cards from your bank. For this action, the player would have to give constructive feedback or something that can be improved on or stop doing. E.g. “I would like to give you feedback regarding the three broken builds last week. How do you think you did in this? What do you think about running those unit tests before committing code?”
- Use your Personality’s Special Power. For this action, identify the feedback you’d like to give the person or the team. E.g. “I feel that you could provide us with a crispier summary of your previous day during the daily standup. A high-level update on the progress of the story and any blockers that you need help with will be a good start for content.”
Step 3: Other rules to note
- Action cards that have been played go into the Discard Pile. You can choose not to play any action on your turn.
- Players are allowed a maximum of 8 cards on their hand. Discard excess cards into the Discard Pile (not considered an action). If you have no more cards in hand, you can only continue to take 2 cards at your turn.
- While the game is going on, someone from the team or the one facilitating the retrospective should note down the feedback given by the team. These will be used in the last part of the activity.
The game ends
The game ends when there are no more Dream Cards left in the Dream Pile. The winner is the player with the most dreams! Crown the winner. The winner is then the facilitator where the team goes over their feedback and decides what they feel most strongly about and discuss the action items they would like to do to address these.
Some variations to the format
Unsatisfied with the 6 Personality Cards
Timebox 1 minute to create your Personality Card! Come up with the description and Special Power! A great opportunity for your team members to unleash their creativity and uniqueness.
More than 6 team members
Consider using 2 decks of cards instead, so you could have to up to 12 personalities. If any larger, it wouldn’t be an ideal agile team anyway.
An open-space time before making action items
After the game ends or if the team has decided to stop playing, do an open-space type of activity. Timebox a small amount of time where the team can just freely exchange feedback with each other. Open-space time gives everyone a chance to share something that they might not have gotten to because of the gameplay.
Key Learnings
- This retrospective gameplay allows everyone to speak and share their thoughts especially for those who are quieter. Members of the team that do not talk often, they are also not likely to give feedback towards each other. This format of retrospective gives/makes them talk.
- Adding a prize at the end get team members interested in playing and getting dreams. And for team members to get dreams, they will need to give feedback.
- Being the winner with a prize in hand, the winner has less resistance to facilitate the last activity. It will train team members on facilitation skills and allow for rotation of facilitators.
Overall, this game is quite fun. Team members of other nationalities can have better insights into what is a Singaporean. It also creates empathy within the team.
Also, I found that the team mood lightens when they see a card game. It is the fun that teams wanted at the end of every iteration. And retrospective is still best with snacks and drinks!
If you like what you read, be sure to hit that 👏button below and share. It’ll motivate me to write more in 2019! Thanks! 😍
Hi! My name is Sylvia Ng. I’m an Agile Specialist in Engineering Excellence at SP Group. I post processes, tools, people and culture related stuff on Twitter, you can follow me to have a conversation. You also can connect with me on LinkedIn. 🤓️
