Forming Triangles is a great energizer with a valuable message, being very useful for starting a conversation about self-organizing teams.

Running the activity:

This activity is divided into two parts.

 

First part:

  1. Ask the members of the group to walk individually in a random direction.
  2. After some time, say the magic word “triangle”: each group member will have to find two other people and form an equilateral triangle (each person is a triangle vertex and should point each arm towards the other two people representing the other triangle vertices; each person is a triangle vertex on one triangle only).
  3. Track how long it took the group to form the triangles.

 

Second part:

  1. Select one person to be the organizer of all triangles.
  2. Ask the members of the group to walk in a random direction.
  3. After some time, say the magic word “triangle”: the organizer has to form equilateral triangles with all group members (including the organizer in one of the triangles).
  4. Track how long it took the group to form the triangles.

 

The first part shows a self-organizing group; the second run shows a group guided by an organizer.

Typically, the self-organizing triangle formation runs faster than its counterpart, and the team feels more engaged in the activity. This activity fosters the conversation about an essential concept of successful agile teams: self-organization.