Improv-ing Agile Teams: Using Constraints To Unlock Creativity

I absolutely love this book. I have been an agile coach for the last ten years and this has provided me with some great ideas of how to help unleash the creativity with the teams I coach. One of the big areas I see new teams struggle with is creating safety to open up and share when things go wrong, Paul has shared very useful activities to try out with the team to build this sense of safety.I can't wait to try out the concepts and games shared in this book with the teams I coach, from helping to improve the teams engagement and listening skills to livening up some of the regular agile ceremonies. I would thoroughly recommend this to any coach, scrummaster or team facilitator who want new and innovative ways to help their teams grow.

Paul Goddard is a well-respected coach and trainer in the UK agile community so I expected a lot from his book. Thankfully, he didn't disappoint. This book, structured into 5 logical sections, has excellent concise summaries, followed by a digestible number of games (along with a smattering of general coaching pointers along the way). I will certainly be running some of them in future team sessions. Not all of the games are my style, but that's a sign that the book is catering for different preferences. Definitely recommend.

This is a great book by Paul. Clear and concise, I found it very helpful in grounding the way I discuss improv in the real world with 'non performers'. Excellent.

A great comparison and full of practical ideas. Don't want to write 12 more words Amazon, bla bla bla bla bla...

Lots of useful one-liners and quotes in here plus plenty of thought provoking ideas. Easy to read and well written.Hopefully Paul's daughter is getting some of the royalties.

Quite simply, if you're interested in creating highly cooperative teams (agile or not), you should read this book.WarningIf you refer to yourself as an Agile Coach or a Scrum Master and you don't buy this book I will find you.

I like books that are easy to read and jam packed full of insights, games and learnings. This book is exactly that!When reading I get a real sense of Pauls’ passion for improv and I can’t help it rubbing off on me. I can see a real direct relationship between what he describes and what I do on a daily basis.One of my favourite techniques listed was the Psychic daily stand up, so simple, yet so effective. I have already sent this to pretty much everyone I have ever coached or mentored.This book will not disappoint you and should be expedited to the top of your reading backlog. Enjoy!

a great read but more importantly a good reference book to return to and change your thinking when addressing a problem, the structure of the book lends itself well to looking for ideas to increase creativity for specific problems, environments or ceremonies. I expect to have a well thumbed copy in my bag for years to come, for those concerned that playing games is not for them Paul clearly directs the facilitator on how to get the most from the activity and there is clear justification, knowing the intent is what makes this a valuable tool in your arsenal rather than 'just a bit of fun'my team performed a tand up this week, the results were outstanding especially focussing the team on listening to the remote team members and building trust as we failed and the value of failing fast, this alone was worth the price of the book.