Ball Point Game: Self-organizing Your Flow of Work

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Ball Point Game:
Self-organizing Your Flow of Work
Mark Grove
Managing Consultant | Agile Coach
Variation of Ball Point game created by Boris Gloger
/in/mkgrov/

All systems have a natural velocity
and if we want to increase this natural
velocity, we need to change the
boundaries of the system.

If You Have Played this Before…

The Ball Point Game Objective
Working as a single team, pass as many balls through
the team and back to the starting point in two minutes.

The Ball Point Game Rules
• Identify one person as the Recorder.
Everyone else is a Worker.
• Each ball must have air-time when
passed from worker to worker.
• Each ball must be touched at least
once by every worker.
• Balls cannot be passed to your
immediate neighbor on the left or right.
• Each ball must return to the same person
who introduced it into the system.
• There are a total of five iterations that are
two minutes each.
• The team will have a two-minute planning
session before iteration one.
• After each iteration, the team will have a
one-minute retrospective.

The Ball Point Game Recorder Duties
• The Recorder will keep track of the number of balls
processed for each iteration.
• Give 1 point for each ball that completes the process.
• Subtract 2 points from the score for each dropped ball.
• Give 1 point if the ball is picked up and goes through
the entire process again.
• Keep track of improvement ideas from retrospective.

Recorder Template
Iteration #
# Projected
to Complete
#
Completed
#
Dropped
Balls in
System
Total
Score
Retro Improvements
1
2
3
4
5

Reminder: The Ball Point Game Rules
• Each ball must have air-time when passed.
• Each ball must be touched at least once by every team
member.
• Balls cannot be passed to your immediate neighbor on the
left or right.
• Each ball must return to the same person who introduced
it into the system.

Ready, Get Set, Go!

Debrief
Self-organization and Leadership

Debrief
Take a few minutes and discuss the questions with your group.
Be prepared to share your discussion!
1. Where did the leadership come from?
2. How did the team make decisions during the game?
3. How may have this game turned out if a manager
directed your improvement efforts?

1. Where did the leadership
come from?
Through self-organization.
May have had more than one
leader. Many ideas offered from
many people.
Debrief

2. How did the team make
decisions?
Self-organized to find the best
working conditions.
However, still working within given
constraints or rules.
No manager was appointed and yet
improvement continued.
Debrief

3. How may have this game
turned out if a manager
directed your improvement
efforts?
“Wisdom of the crowd,” ingenuity,
and creativity would have been
minimized.
May have taken a long time to plan
and think through the “best”
approach.
The number of balls processed most
likely would have been fewer.
Debrief

Debrief
Managing the Flow of Work

Debrief
1. Was this a pull system or a push system?
2. Were there bottlenecks? How were they identified? How
were they alleviated?

Was this a pull system or a push
system?
More of a pull system.
No point in throwing a ball to
someone who was not ready.
Debrief

1. Were there bottlenecks? How
were they identified? How were
they alleviated? Alleviated by changing the
boundaries of the system. Changing
the policies. A focus on the system
over parts of the system.
Bunching up of balls with a single
person.
Individuals waiting to throw balls.
More balls being dropped.
Debrief

1. What was the impact when I eased the rules of “air time” for
some workers? Though my intentions were good, did it help?
2. Did the team work harder, faster, or smarter to achieve a
higher score?
Debrief

1. What was the impact when I
eased the rules of “air time” for
some workers? Though my
intentions were good, did it help?
Was this an example of local or
system optimization?
A bottleneck formed.
Debrief
Was my concern more with the flow
of work or the performance of the
people?

2. Did the team work harder,
faster, or smarter to achieve a
higher score? Working smarter tends to yield
faster delivery, better quality, and a
sustainable pace.
Working harder can overburden us
over time. Lack of sustainable pace.
Debrief
Working faster can lead to lapses in
quality and judgement.

Debrief
Planning and Forecasting

1. Would it be better to have one ten-minute planning period in the
beginning and then one ten-minute execution period? Why or
why not?
2. How did the metrics help in your retrospectives during the game?
Debrief

1. Would it be better to have one
ten-minute planning period in
the beginning and then one
ten-minute execution period?
Why or why not?
A big execution period gives us little
feedback.
Unlikely to have been better. Even
though the first few iterations
processed fewer balls, there was
still value delivery.
Debrief
A ten-minute planning period would
have yielded no value delivery.

2. How did the metrics help in
your retrospectives during the
game?
Means to measure progress.
Debrief
Very helpful to see if new retro ideas
were impactful or not.

Wrap Up: Project Specific Question
How might you use this workshop with your own teams?
What are some ideas that could be used to modify the game?

Thank You

References
• https://www.borisgloger.com/en/home/?lang=en
• https://scrumology.com/from-the-archives-the-ball-point-game/
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/coaching-scrum-ball-point-game-patrick-
tanna/ - Patrick Hanna
• https://image.shutterstock.com/image-vector/emoji-character-shushing-
shhh-politely-260nw-1085669441.jpg

Ball Point Game: Self-organizing Your Flow of Work

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