Story Listening, not Storytelling  

Luke Hohmann 

I recently completed an unusually fun project: Paul Mantey from NetApp invited me, and my colleague and Certified Collaboration Architect John Heintz from Gist Labs, to make a series of short, educational films for the NetApp sales team. John covered Agile and DevOps, Paul presented NetApp's completely unique value proposition for Agile DevOps, and Paul and I discussed how NetApp's Impact Discovery Workshops, which are powered by Innovation Games®, radically change the sales process. It was a lot of fun hanging out in the NetApp film studios--Green screens! Super cool video gear! "On Air" signs!

Luke Hohmann & NetApp's Paul Mantey on leveraging stories in sales engagements

sessions (Click on the image to the right to watch one). In one session, Cathie interviewed Paul and myself on the art of story telling in sales. Our focus was on helping strategic account managers use stories to connect NetApp value propositions and market differentiating features to customer needs. And I loved this session because it allowed Paul and myself to make a full-circle link between the storytelling that shares value propositions in a compelling way and the story listening that is the foundation of Innovation Games®.

Two of my favorite negative salesperson stereotypes are PowerPoint Paula and the What and Why? Guy. PowerPoint Paula blows into your office, demands an overhead projector, and then proceeds to bore you to tears with her carefully rehearsed slide deck. Her carefully rehearsed stories (cue customer story 3 on slide 7) is what I call a "show up and throw up". Paula shows up, throws up slides-- and you simply want to vomit.

The What and Why? Guy is at the other end of the spectrum. He comes into the office with a notebook, a pen and a set of questions that always seem to end in Why: "What do you need? Why?" or "What are your strategic priorities? Why?" or "What can we improve? Why?" At best, the What and Why Guy is sincere (albeit creepily sincere). At worst, the What and Why Guy is merely interrogating you in an effort to close a deal.

IG Summit Coming to Amsterdam 

The first Innovation Games Summit was so much fun, we decided we couldn't wait an entire year to do it again. So, we're bringing the Summit to Amsterdam, Sept 18-20, 2013. 

Gazelle's Verne Harnish to Keynote IG Summit EU

The call for papers just opened -- and registration will soon. We're planning on a full day of in-depth workshops on September 18, followed by keynotes, panels, lightning talks, Speed Game sessions and more on September 19-20.

Killer Keynotes & Sessions

Conference Chair Ulf Hannelilus has already secured some great speakers for the summit, including a keynote from Verne Harnish, of Gazelles fame. CEO and Founder Luke Hohmann will also be keynoting and teaching an intensive one-day Master Workshop in Innovation Games.

Still need convincing? Check out these interviews from the first Innovation Games Summit:

• Alexander Osterwalder talks Business Models
• Gerry Kirk talks about bringing agility & games to civic engagement.
• Forrester's Tom Grant discuses the changing rules of work.
• Paul Germeraad discusses using Innovation Games for R&D.
• Deb Colden & Tami Carter talk about how online games can bring teams to together--even if some are remote.  

Speed Boat meets SWOT, Innovation Games & Scrum, ScrumKnowsy and more... 

One of best parts of putting this newsletter together each month is unearthing how Innovation Games are changing how people do work, all over the world. This month we have reports on Speed Boat, including a mashup with Swot Analysis, details on using Innovation Games in Scrummaster training, the ScrumKnowsy iPad app, and more... 

Speed Boat meets SWOT

Show me someone in the working world who hasn't used SWOT Analysis? Raise your hand if you've played Speed Boat. Ever mashed the two together? 

No, well, Don Reinertsen of CostofDelay.com has and writes, "I've run a few SWOT analysis with senior managers and teams, to help them identify and share strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. What would be great to do is combine the boat metaphor [from Innovation Game's Speed Boat] and the safe environment -- and add to it a bit by identifying both negatives and positives, as well as make more explicit what is inherent to the organization itself and what is beyond their locus of control."

Reinertsen's combined game is covered in detail on his website. Do you have a game mashup to share? Let us know!

Speed Boat Short Takes. 

Reinertsen wasn't the only person posting about Speed Boat. Check out these posts as well on how folks are putting the game to work:

• Speed Boat in Russian

  The product manager blogger behind Tisquirrel.com writes about how Speed Boat can ease the most uncomfortable and most important part of retrospectives, what went wrong and what went right. The original post is in Russian, but Google Translate helps, if you're not lucky enough (like me) to have a kid fluent in Russian.
• David Koss writes about attending an Innovation Games workshop at PaloIT in Paris in April, where he explores how to use Speed Boat to solve organizational problems. (En Francais, but Google Translate helps here as well.) 

Innovation Games + Scrum = Awesome 

Qualified Instructor and Enthiosys President Jason Tanner recently teamed up with Carlton Nettleton to co-teach a Certified Scrummaster class. Innovation Games have long been used in the Agile community; the techniques work really well with common agile practices, but it's still cool to hear about how the games are being put to use. 

In this post, Carlton details how he and Jason incorporated both online and in-person games into the class, including 20/20 Vision, Prune the Product Tree, Speed Boat, Buy a Feature and Knowsy (ScrumKnowsy, of course). 

Carlton writes, "The online games are really powerful. During our course, Jason demonstrated how to use the online games for retrospectives, market research and release planning. Seeing the new and interesting ways that Jason had used the on-line games as a collaboration tool intrigued me."  Read more about how Carlton and Jason incorporated Innovaton Games here. 

ScrumKnowsy: iPad or Browser-based? 

ScrumKnowsy is now available as an iPad app, allowing you to play the standalone, personal version withou t a wifi connection and discover how your Scrum practice stacks up against such Scrum luminaries as Jeff Sutherland, Jim Coplien, Jens Østergaard and Jeff McKenna.

Want to play online, alone or with your team? Save and export your results as you improve and grow your Scrum practice? Register and play online at www.scrumknowsy.com.

Biz Strategist/Marketing Pro Nancy Chou Knows Knowsy

We're growing the team again (Yay!) and are excited that Nancy Chou has joined Innovation Games as General

Nancy Chou, GM Knowsy

Manager for Knowsy™. Nancy adds 25 years of deep B2B and B2C experience at companies likeHP, IBM, the Norton Consumer Business of Symantec Corp, and Cygnus Solutions and LeadFormix, in addition to killer competitive ballroom dancing skills, to the team. And she's also a good sport, since she agreed to answer my semi-silly questions for this newsletter. 

What's your favorite Innovation Game?

Knowsy™, of course! 

What makes you smile? 

Seeing the underdog win. 

What did you have for breakfast?

Contemplated having Raisin Bran until I realized I was out of milk. So I had a banana with my decaf cappucino instead.

What's the coolest thing you've seen or done lately? 

Attending my Kellogg Graduate School of Management Class of 1983 Reunion this past weekend. The authentic connections and good will that we all felt toward each other was unbelievable, indescribable and unforgettable. 

Who do you want to play Knowsy™ with?

First Lady Michelle Obama, because one of the philanthropic causes Innovation Games would like to help solve is childhood obesity.

Want to learn more about Knowsy? Contact Nancy.