The “Meet Your Neighbours” activity is a valuable tool for visualising team participants and their relationships with stakeholders, other teams, and the systems surrounding the team. By mapping out these connections, teams gain a better understanding of their external interactions and can foster stronger collaboration.
Step-by-Step:
- Draw a circle representing your team.
- Ask the participant to write and place in the circle post-it their names and functions. Consider asking for post.its about the team products or systems (on different post-it color)
- Ask the participants to think about their neighbours, which include people, teams, systems, or stakeholders that interact with their team.
- Write the names or brief descriptions of these neighbours on post-its and place them around the central team circle.
- Facilitate a discussion around the neighbours and their relationships with the team.
Consider color coding: To differentiate between different types of neighbours, you can assign colors to the post-its. For example, use yellow for people, and pink for systems or APIs.
“Meet Your Neighbours” is a valuable activity that allows teams to visualize their external interactions and relationships. By understanding their neighbours, teams can foster better collaboration, manage dependencies, and enhance stakeholder engagement. This activity serves as a powerful tool for team alignment, communication, and successful planning.
Remote-team advice: This activity works well for remote teams. Use a remote board of your choice.