Introduction

One of the greatest challenges I see in agile contexts is alignment. Let me begin by sharing this scenario—

The VP of App Development has been telling their teams that performing TDD (test-driven development) as part of their development efforts is a nice to have. Something to do if they have the time, but not that important in the overall scheme of things. They’ve amplified that hitting the dates is more important than following the process.

On the flip-side, the VP of Quality & Operations has been telling their teams that TDD is a must-have requirement for every Epic/Feature/Story that they deliver. That’s why it’s in the Definition of Done. Not as a suggestion, but as an imperative. They’ve amplified that, while date commitments are important, quality is job one and that includes following the process and DoD.

What we see across the Scrum Teams is a lack of alignment around TDD and ultimately around how they work and the quality of what they deliver. On the surface, coaches usually view this as a team-level challenge. I on the other hand view it as a more systemic failure of leadership to be aligned and communicating clearly across the organization.

Back to ORSC

I want to amplify that the DTA and equivalent activities should start the alignment process within this system. And certainly Constellations and the act of constellating systems can also illustrate misalignments, which might lead to changing agreements and improved alignment. But I want to share a tool that I feel would do a great job helping to align the above two leaders…

Lands Work

To be honest, Lands Work is my favorite ORSC tool. It was one of the first major coaching tools I used when coaching a client pair in my initial classes. And since then, it’s probably been one of my top, goto tools.

I think one of the strengths of Lands Work is as an alignment tool. And, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, like most of ORSC’s tools, it’s a great way to increase empathy and broaden clients perspectives.

Setting Up Lands Work

There are three critical metaphors in leveraging Lands Work—

  1. Notion of a well-behaved tourist—appreciating the new land, showing curiosity, willingness to learn new things. Trying not to judge the new land in any way.

  2. Notion of being a generous & kind host—welcoming your visitor, clearly answering their questions, while also “showing off” the aspects of your land that you are proud of or that are important to you.

  3. Notion of simply visiting—leaving your baggage, always being able to return home for grounding.

It’s also important to show up with specific meta-skills, for example—curiosity, inquiry/awareness, and perhaps courage are common and helpful.

Example #1 - Team

The Principles

In this example, I’m going to be using Lands Work to help a Leader gain additional insights of a Scrum Team. The Scrum Team is represented by the development team + Scrum Master + Product Owner. And the leader is a Manager of the development team who has been “swooping in” and micro-managing the entire team.

The “team” has agreed that 2 team members and the Scrum Master can “represent” all of them.

The two principles in this case orient themselves as in the photo. That is, each on one side of the lines in their own Lands.

Interactions

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Interaction #1 - Exploring the Managers Land—the first step is for the team to cross over into the managers land. They put on the mindset of a “good tourist” and explore the land with the manager. The team asks questions so that they better understand the totality of the manager’s perspective, the micromanaging, and the drivers behind it. The team shows curiosity around that and tries to see the actions through the eyes of the manager. The team is gaining empathy and understanding…then they return to their land. The coach asks the team what they learned as part of their trip?

Interaction #2 - Exploring the Teams Land—the next step is for the manager to visit the teams land. Again, They put on the mindset of a “good tourist” and explore the land with the team. The team explains why they’re having difficulty with the micromanagement and what the impact is to them, their morale, and their work. The manager shows curiosity around that and tries to see their actions through the eyes of the team. The manager is gaining empathy…then they return to their land. The coach asks the manager what they learned as part of their trip?

Note: if either of the visits get too “heated”, then return the visitor to their home land so that they can ventilate and re-center. Ask them if they wish to return to the other land for more exploration.

Interaction #3 - Co-creating OUR Land—finally both groups reorient themselves over the line to co-create our land. Each group in turn “imports” an idea or notion they heard from the other party’s land into Our Land. They keep taking turns until they feel that Our Land is something that they can (1) support and (2) occupy. A final question would be—is there anything else that needs to be included into Our Land for it to be more complete? Then there is discussion and agreement for additions adds. There certainly will be compromises, but Our Land will be in many ways better than the two lands were apart.

The two also establish a new DTA for themselves and review—what’s available from here? (the new / Our Land).

Questions for Co-Creating Our Land

  1. Would we each of you import from the others land?

  2. What things would be different from My Land or Your Land?

  3. What would you like to add, something new, to Our Land?

  4. And, as I said, Now what’s available from here?

Example #2 - Organizational Leaders

The Principles

In this example, I’m going to be using Lands Work to help an organization gain insights into their lack of alignment in order to improve or better connect them from an organizational goals perspective.

Again, this is an agile context. And the organizational leaders include VP’s from Software Development, Product Management, Quality Engineering, Customer Support, and Operations.

In this case, we’re going to draw a circle and have each of the principles “stand in” one of the slices that represents their unique land (perspective, goals, views, intentions, challenges, etc.).

Interactions

Interaction #1 - Exploring each VP’s land—the first step is all of the leaders to gather and step into their own lands. Then, one-by-one, we’ll have them answer the following questions

  1. What do you love about your land?

  2. What is difficult in your land?

  3. What else do you want others to know about your land?

All of the other lands (leaders) need to pay attention to the details of each land so that they gain a better understanding, as they’ll be asked to review later.

Interaction #2 - Visiting each others Lands—the next step is for the leaders to visit each of the Lands. That is, the VP of Product Management “steps back” from their Land and everyone else “visits”. They explain what they know about the Land by exploring what they heard. They also ask questions of the VP of Product Management if they need any clarification. Once they’ve thoroughly visited, everyone returns to their own Lands.

The process continues until everyone has visited and gained understanding across all of the Lands.

Interaction #3 - Co-creating OUR Land—the final step is for all of the VP’s to leave their own Lands and collaborate around Our Land. Then they brainstorm around what aspects from each others Lands they want to “import” into Our Land? Remember, they can’t import from their own lands, just from their colleagues’ lands.

They keep taking turns until they feel that Our Land is something that they can (1) support and (2) occupy. A final question would be—is there anything else that needs to be included into Our Land for it to be more complete? Then there is discussion and agreement for additions adds. There certainly will be compromises, but Our Land will be in many ways better than the two lands were apart.

Finally, the group establishes a new DTA for themselves and review—what’s available from here? (the new / Our Land).

Why I find Lands Work Useful?

I hope you found my examples illustrative of Lands Work in-action.

First, I like the flexibility of it. You can clearly use it for pair-coaching. However, I’ve also used it, as in the example, with groups that are “stuck” in their “positions”.

Second, as in many of the ORSC tools, it really focuses on gaining empathy and perspective, rather than holding/focusing on one position. I love the empathy focus.

I’m not sure if it’s clear, but there’s a spatial reorientation. When we’re looking at each other’s lands, we’re facing each other. However, when we’re co-creating the two parties are shoulder-to-shoulder, partnering on their creation.

Finally, I find the exercise to be engaging for the client. They’re moving. They’re visiting and learning. And they move from positions to a partnership in Our Land.