Elevate Your Inspect and Adapt Event: 5 Principles of the I&A

with some practical tips

By Gerben Kollaard and Matthew Harvey

This is the third blog in a series on the I&A. Read part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 4 here.

Introduction

In the world of Agile, the Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event stands as a pivotal moment for teams to reflect, learn, and refine their processes. Within the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), this ceremony takes on added significance, serving as a platform for continuous improvement at the enterprise level. While the basics of I&A are well-established, there are several Principles that will help you to help elevate the effectiveness and impact of this event. For each principle we will give you a practical best practice.

Principles of the I&A:

#1 Adapt your I&A to your environment

#2 Adapt your I&A to the maturity of the train.

#3 Thematise your I&A

#4 Utilise inclusive and engaging practices

#5 Use your I&A to continuous to improve.

Adapt your I&A to your environment

Continuous improvement can take on many forms, of course doing the basic 3 parts of the Inspect and Adapt will fulfil needs of your train to continuously improve. But your environment will have specials needs, as the environment is constantly changing, and your ART needs to anticipate on that.

A simple example is an unexpected number of changes noticed influencing the ART performance. Seeing it during PI execution you can prepare your I&A focussing on improving the process around changes. Use variations for each Inspect & Adapt by engaging Scrum Masters and Business stakeholders or thru Agility surveys beforehand to understand what the focus should be each time.

Adapt your I&A to maturity of the train

ARTs learn, ARTs mature, ARTs evolve. Starting off with the basic 3 parts of the Inspect & Adapt is good, but when your ART matures, your I&A should mature also, focussing on the needs of your ART.

After a number of years, the ARTs require different levers to be triggered. Don’t be scared to add variety each time and try and focus on getting at least 1 improvement right rather than starting many and fully completing none. A good example is focussing on teamwork as the improvement item and playing 3 separate inspiring teamwork videos and then after each video, the teams had to Inspect and Reflect on the lessons they learnt from each video and how they would adapt and incorporate it back into their team and after each video session, every team presented the 1 top item that they would implement.

Thematise your I&A

Based on the first 2 principles, thematising your I&A will help you with adapting to your environment and ART needs. Using a theme gives focus and if you do it right, a lot of fun!

For example, give the day a theme and match the deck that your present from with it i.e use a “sport” theme, asking people to dress up in sporting tops for that day and carry that sporting analogy thru to the words and terminology. It creates variety and give people something different to engage around instead of the standard workshop.

Injecting elements of gamification into the I&A event can also add an element of fun, competition and motivation. Design interactive activities, challenges (like making a virtual Pizza and then having to sell it), or simulations that encourage teamwork, problem-solving, and creativity. Incorporate game mechanics such as points, badges, leaderboards, or rewards to incentivise participation and engagement.

Do a Shark Tank event one time to foster Innovation thinking.

Gamification not only makes the I&A event more enjoyable but also stimulates cognitive engagement and enhances retention of key insights and learnings. By transforming the I&A event into a playful and immersive experience, organizations can boost morale, foster camaraderie, and drive enthusiasm for continuous improvement.

Make it as much fun as possible for people to want to attend and engage.

Utilise inclusive and engaging practices

The fourth principle involves the complete engagement of the ART and its stakeholders. Using inclusive and engaging practices like for example ‘Liberating Structures’ or ‘Deep Democracy’ will help you do that.

 Using the liberation structure of 15% solutions, ART members and stakeholder started to choose and solve problems they could actually solve. Resulting in an energy of everybody wanting to join the problem-solving workshop.

 Another example is about mixing up teams either using a name randomiser to create completely mixed teams who then learn from each other and also get to know them and their challenges a bit better. Alternatively, you can also mix teams into the capabilities e.g.: All Functional Analysts together, all Test analysts together etc. to then focus on their specific capability and what their challenges are and how to improve them. Teams have learnt and shared an incredible amount of items between themselves and have continued to share and engage post the Inspect & Adapt.

By harnessing the power of inclusive and engaging practices, you can enrich the I&A experience and drive more impactful outcomes.

Use your I&A to continuously improve

The fifth and maybe the most important principle of the I&A is using your I&A to improve. Use your I&A to foster a culture of continuous improvement. Not inspecting your product at the System Demo, not using metrics to objectively find things you have to improve and not doing the retrospective and problem-solving workshop will stop your relentless improvement. And once stopped you will not be able to adapt to your changing environment.

How do you keep the focus on continuous improvement? At each Inspect & Adapt, just after the metrics discussion, create a slot where teams have to present back progress made on their no 1 improvement item from the previous Inspect & Adapt and what and how they had progressed or improved on it with specific actions listed and measured where possible.

 Another way to keep improving is encouraging failure. Sounds weird right? Failure is an inevitable part of the improvement journey, yet it's often stigmatized or overlooked in traditional organizational cultures. Flip the script by hosting a "Failure Celebration" session as part of the I&A event. This session provides a safe space for teams to openly share and reflect on their failures, setbacks, and lessons learned. Encourage participants to embrace failure as a natural byproduct of experimentation and innovation. Celebrate instances where teams took bold risks, learned valuable lessons, and pivoted in response to feedback. By normalizing failure and reframing it as a catalyst for growth and resilience, organizations can foster a culture of psychological safety and continuous learning.

Conclusion

Incorporating these principles into your Inspect and Adapt, the event can elevate its impact, foster innovation, and cultivate a culture of continuous improvement. By embracing variety and some of the tips above, organizations can reimagine the I&A event as a dynamic catalyst for transformation and growth. Remember, the true essence of Inspect and Adapt lies not just in reflecting on the past but in embracing the possibilities of the future.