AGILE GAMES

First Letter, Last Letter

AGILE GAMES

First Letter, Last Letter

Timing:

5-15 minutes

Materials:

None

Instructions:

  1. Explain that this is an exercise that requires concentration and listening
  2. The team stands in a circle and is required to tell a story, with each person responsible for one sentence each
  3. Each person must start their sentence with the last letter of the last word of the person before them

Learning Points:

  • The “quality” of the story here is not the primary objective of the game
  • This game requires people to stay actively engaged in what their team-mates are saying
  • Develops listening skills
  • Encourages team attention
  • Makes meetings a little more fun

Variations:

  1. Introduce this as a practice in the Daily Scrum to encourage team members to pay full attention and bring a little fun to the meeting
  2. A fun “forfeit” could be added to someone who gets it wrong

This exercise was co-created as part of a collaboration day between myself and Paul Goddard

About Tasty Cupcakes

This content was originally published on Tasty Cupcakes, a community-run website founded by Michael McCullough and Don McGreal after they presented a series of games at Agile2008 in Toronto. The site’s tagline was “fuel for invention and learning.” After 15 years at TastyCupcakes.org, the content has found a new permanent home here at Agile Alliance.

The games, techniques, and approaches presented are here to use and explore. All we ask is that you tell others about us and give us some feedback on the games themselves. All of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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