23 October 2024

Big Room Planning

The way that we innovate, communicate and collaborate across teams and different groups is essential to bring the right products and services to the market.  Some organisations have mastered collaboration within in teams, but very few are masters across teams. Big Room Planning is a dynamic event that emphasises collaboration and innovation among diverse groups within the organisation. It’s a structured yet flexible space for teams to align on goals, brainstorm innovative solutions, and tackle complex challenges. Bringing together varied perspectives fosters a rich environment for creativity, allowing for the cross-pollination of ideas and ensuring that strategies are robust, inclusive, and forward-thinking. This approach accelerates planning and decision-making, enhancing cohesion across teams and commitment to shared objectives.

Silos

Tensions Addressed

  • Lack of Innovation
  • Belief in Magic (“The Team Will Make It Work”)
  • Lack of Transparency  
  • We Don’t Share Information and Knowledge   
  • Teams are Not Involved at the Start of Work  
  • Lots of Cross-team Dependencies 
  • Misalignment between Stakeholders 
  • We Work in Silos
  • Priorities Aren’t Clear

Key Characteristics

Unfortunately some of the scaled approaches to agile have rather corrupted big room/cross-team planning, with a focus on creating a plan, they feel like an event for the benefit of management. What we are talking about here is teams collaborating to solve wicked problems with innovative ideas, and decide how they can collaborate to achieve shared goals. A collaborative event by the teams for the teams so that they can make a positive impact for their customers.

Customer-Centric Focus

The driving force behind Big Room Planning is the teams’ alignment on delivering value to the customer. Rather than focusing on producing a rigid plan that satisfies management oversight, Big Room Planning revolves around customer needs, fostering direct communication between product teams and stakeholders to ensure that what’s being built aligns with real customer demands. Teams are encouraged to challenge assumptions, prioritize features, and brainstorm solutions that will bring the most value to the end-users​​.

Empowered Decision-Making at the Team Level

Big Room Planning empowers teams to make decisions about their work in alignment with organisational goals. Teams decide on priorities, set timelines, and organize themselves to achieve the best results for their customers. They are actively involved in identifying and managing dependencies across teams, promoting a sense of ownership and accountability​​.

Collaborative Problem Solving and Innovation

Big Room Planning fosters an environment where teams can collaborate to solve complex problems, encouraging cross-team collaboration and knowledge-sharing. The goal is to co-create innovative solutions that address real customer problems. This approach creates a fertile ground for innovation, as diverse teams bring their unique perspectives and insights into the discussion​​.

Transparency and Shared Understanding

Big Room Planning emphasises transparency by including all teams and stakeholders in the planning process. This approach creates a shared understanding of priorities, challenges, and risks across the organization, making it easier for teams to coordinate and align their efforts. Teams understand not only their role but also how their work contributes to the broader customer experience​​.

Early Involvement of Teams

In Big Room Planning, teams are involved from the start of the planning process, ensuring that their insights and expertise shape the product. This prevents the common pitfall where teams are handed a pre-defined plan and expected to execute it without sufficient context. Early involvement builds a deeper understanding of customer needs and challenges, leading to better decision-making and product outcomes​​.

Alignment on Priorities and Goals

One of the core elements of Big Room Planning is aligning teams on a common set of goals, with a clear focus on customer outcomes. This alignment is not top-down but is built collaboratively by the teams, ensuring that everyone is working toward aligned customer-centric objectives. It also means identifying and addressing cross-team dependencies early, which helps in delivering cohesive solutions to customers​​.

Focus on Delivering Incremental Value

In Big Room Planning, teams are encouraged to focus on delivering incremental value rather than pursuing large, multi-phase projects. This ensures that customer value is delivered continuously, and teams can respond to feedback more quickly. It also allows teams to adjust course as they learn more about customer needs​.

Summary

Big Room Planning creates a collaborative and transparent environment where innovation thrives, and teams are empowered to align on shared objectives. By tackling tensions such as a lack of transparency and cross-team dependencies, this approach ensures that the resulting strategies are robust, inclusive, and adaptable. Rather than creating plans solely for management’s benefit, it focuses on engaging teams in problem-solving and innovation, making it a truly forward-thinking, participatory process that helps organizations navigate complexity.

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Develop Your Skills

To develop your skills in the area of team development consider our Scrum Master learning path, from our foundational Scrum Master training as your starting point, progressing to Advanced Scrum Master and finally Scrum Professional.  As a leader in an organisation develop your Agile Leadership skills with our over-arching Agile Leadership training.

If you would like support in building high-performing teams consider our Consulting Services, we can put together a programme for team development designed specifically for your teams and organisation.  Reach out today to discuss any support that you need.

About The Author:

Mark Summers believes that happiness always comes first. As a leading figure in the growth of Agile coaching, experience has taught him that a team that’s having fun will perform far better. For Mark, enjoyment isn’t an optional extra – that’s where businesses go wrong. He believes that the organisation of the future will be driven by self-organising, self-motivated teams and facilitated by manager-coaches, rather than led by traditional dictator-managers. Mark sees his work – coaching teams, leadership and organisations in their move to agility – as part of a bigger shift in society. Uncompromisingly honest with himself, energising and thought-provoking as a coach, Mark is 100% committed to helping people succeed by becoming happier, more open and more autonomous as individuals and as teams.
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