Use “W3” To Inspect The Results And Identify Improvements With Columinity
Learn how to use “What, So What, Now What?” to make sense of the results and translate insights into action.
Based on the latest scientific research, Columinity (formerly Scrum Team Survey) is a pioneering tool to help teams improve where it matters most. It’s your evidence-based companion for continuous improvement. It highlights performance patterns on multiple levels and illuminates how to move forward.
We defined five steps to get the most out of Columinity:
We strongly recommend all users to follow these steps. They prove to increase the chances of successful usage of the tool drastically.
This article describes an alternative for step #4 and uses the Liberating Structure “What, So What, Now What?” to inspect the results and identify improvements.
How To Prepare
The invitations and steps are aimed at a single team using the tool. It’s okay if a team already wants to include the perspectives of their stakeholders and supporters (managers, leaders, coaches).
Material:
- Prepare slides or an online whiteboard to collect your insights.
- Have (digital) copies of the team report ready.
- Bring a copy of the poster with the factors that influence Agile team effectiveness.
- Bring a (digital) copy ready of the poster “What, So What, Now What?”.
- Optional: Get a card deck with 100+ Quick Tips to improve your team.
About “What, So What, Now What?”
The Liberating Structure “What, So What, Now What?” helps by asking us to reconsider what is happening. It structures our thinking by breaking our experience into three steps: “What do we notice?” “So, what does this mean?” and “Now, where do we go from here?”. It takes inspiration from the Ladder of Inference by Chris Argyris, an expert on learning in organizations.
By doing this with other team members (and ideally also stakeholders and supporters), you are encouraged to discover the gaps in your understanding by learning from various perspectives. Being a relatively simple structure, you can quickly adapt it to suit the situation’s needs. And the more you do it, the more natural this structured approach to sense-making becomes.
Consider using a Liberating Structure for each round, like “1–2–4-ALL”. Exploring the various parts of “What, So What, Now What” is simple and sufficient. It can lead to interesting conversations, insights, and tangible next steps.
Step 1: Explore The Results Individually
10–20 minutes in total
The first step is to give everyone time to look through the results so they have everything fresh in their mind. We do this in silence and individually to avoid social pressure and biases.
- Share a link to the “Team Report” with your team. You can find it under “Invite”. This report is similar to your personal report but doesn’t show your personal results (in blue). Alternatively, you can print the results or share screenshots.
- (Give everyone time to explore the results under “Report” and “Insights.” Encourage people to take notes. Also, emphasize the need for silent reflection to avoid strong opinions from dominating the conversation later on.
Step 2: What?
10–20 minutes in total
Now that everyone has had the opportunity to inspect the results, we will debrief with the Liberating Structure “What, So What, Now What?”.
Invitation
“When studying the results of our team(s), what facts and observations stand out? What else do you notice?”
- Invite people to consider what they noticed individually and what facts or observations stood out for them.
- Invite people to share their observations in small groups. Encourage people to stick to observations and facts and not to jump to interpretations or conclusions. If this happens, invite people to ask: “How did you notice?” or “What did you observe that made you arrive at that idea?”.
- Invite the small groups to share and collect salient observations with the whole group.
Step 3: So What?
10–20 minutes in total
Invitation
“Given our observations, what conclusions can we draw? What do the results tell us about the state of our team(s)?”
- Invite people to reflect on the observations individually. Why are those observations important? What patterns do you see? What conclusions can we draw?
- Invite people to share their interpretations and conclusions in small groups.
- Invite the small groups to share and collect essential patterns, conclusions, and interpretations with the whole group.
Step 4: Now What?
10–20 minutes in total
Invitation
“Given the conclusions and interpretations, where do we go from here? What next steps for improvement make sense?”
- Invite people to reflect on the previous round individually. What next steps make sense based on the conclusions? What should we invest in as a team based on what we’ve learned?
- Invite people to share the next steps in small groups.
- Invite the small groups to share and collect the next vital steps with the whole group.
Closing words: what’s keeping you?
From experience, we know how hard it can be to drive continuous improvement in your team. There are often a thousand things to improve, but what will be most impactful? We are building Columinity to make this easier for you and your team. It’s free for individual teams. So give it a try and expand from there!
