I spent a couple of exciting days last week in Jamie Krieger’s and Michael Lloyd’s – Dysfunction Mapping (DM) class and thought I’d share some of my thoughts and reactions.
First, I enjoyed how Jamie and Michael structured and facilitated the workshop on Miro. I learned as much about facilitation as I did about DM. I thought they were masterful.
I especially liked Michael’s idea surrounding silence. That is, allow silence to do its work.
Dysfunction Mapping
Before I attended the workshop, I had no idea what DM was and how it might be applied in agile contexts. I was curious because I’d just heard great things about the technique.
Coming out of the workshop, I realized that DM is a technique for taking—
Symptoms to,
Dysfunctions to,
Purpose to,
Hypothesis/Solutions to,
Measurement.
It finds opportunities cyclically and then guides emergent change and improvement at a Scrum team level. I appreciated its bias towards action and measuring impact.
I spend most of my coaching time at the Enterprise, Organizational, and Leadership levels in agile contexts, so I didn’t see a direct application of DM to my normal day-to-day activity. But that said, if I were a Scrum Master or a team-level coach, then the technique would have wonderful applicability.
I could see using it, with modifications, for organizational dynamics, culture, and leadership “dysfunctions.” The class inspired me to extend Michael’s ideas in that direction and potentially add them to my organizational coaching.
Given all this, I might lobby Michael to change the name. “Dysfunction” triggers me in some way, and I’ll bet it does others as well. I’d offer Opportunity and System as replacements 😉
Gamification
One thing that stood out to me is the number of helper cards Michael developed to support DM reflection, brainstorming, and discussions.
It inspired me to think about them for the above-mentioned enterprise-level dynamics. And how helpful it might be to have a set of “challenge cards” to center on when mapping symptoms to hypotheses.
I would highly recommend exploring DM just for the cards themselves.
Wrapping Up
I know you’re wondering if I would recommend the class.
In a word, Yes!!!
It’s a must-have tool in your thinking, facilitative, and coaching toolbox, especially if you're a Scrum Master or team-centric coach.
But I also found it helpful for me and my coaching journey.
By the way, I had to leave the class before the picture was taken, so I’m not in it. Darn!
I want to thank Michael for creating and innovating Dysfunction Mapping, Jamie for being such a knowledgeable and enthusiastic DM supporter and teacher, and everyone in my learning cohort.
Here’s a LinkedIn thread from classmates.
Stay agile, my friends,
Bob.
I learned so much from the session when I took this class. I particularly appreciated how it moves me to system thinking in a natural way.