Introduction

Hello. I am Nakaguchi from KINTO Technologies, Mobile App Development Group. As a team leader of the iOS team, I have previously published articles on team building, which you may find interesting. Please feel free to check them out:

• Revitalizing Retrospectives Through Professional Facilitators
• 180-degree feedback: Highly recommended!

Recently, I participated in [Probably the world’s fastest event: the "Agile Teams goal-setting Guidebook" ABD Reading Session]

My three main objectives for attending this event were as follows:

1. I wanted to experience Active Book Dialogue® (referred to as "ABD" from now on).
2. I was interested in the book featured in the event, "Agile Teams goal-setting Guidebook".
3. I wanted to meet the author, Ikuo Odanaka.

Among these, experiencing ABD for the first time was particularly valuable. I found this reading method incredibly insightful and would like to introduce ABD to more people through this article.

Important Notice

All individuals and materials mentioned in this article have been approved to be published by the event’s organizers and the respective individuals.

About the event

This event took place on Wednesday, July 10, 2024, and was held as an "ABD reading session with the author before the publication" of the "Agile Teams goal-setting Guidebook". The event was so popular that the 15 available slots were filled within the same day the registration page was open. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to participate. I’m especially grateful to Kin-chan from our Corporate IT Group, who introduced me to this event!

About the book

I won’t go into too much detail about the book’s content, as I encourage you to read it yourself. However, I’d like to share some insights Ikuo-san introduced during the opening.

It seems that goal setting isn’t particularly favored in today’s society.
However, if everyone sincerely engages with their goals and strives to achieve them, the world will become a better place.
Therefore, creating good goals is extremely important.

That said, while setting goals is crucial, finding ways to achieve them is even more important.
This book dedicates roughly the first 20% to the process of goal setting,
with the remainder focused on how to achieve those goals, incorporating elements of Agile methodology.

Although the book doesn’t cover performance evaluations, which are often discussed alongside goal settings, it does include columns written by eight contributors.
These columns nicely complement the content,
so I highly recommend reading them!

Ikuo-san's opening scene

About Ikuo-san

Although I have never met Ikuo-san before, I was familiar with him through the following LT sessions and articles:

• <i>”Keeper of the seven keys ~four keys and three more~”</i>
• <i>”10 reasons Why it’s easy to work with an engineering manager like this!”</i>
• <i>”To fulfill the pride of being a "manager."</i> <i>“5 essential books that supported the Ideal EM, Ikuo Odanaka”</i>

I found his insights on development productivity, engineering management, and his approach to reading, to be incredibly valuable. I’ve always wanted to meet him and have a conversation.

Unfortunately, although I manage to exchange a brief greeting with him during the event, I didn’t have the chance to have a proper conversation. While this was disappointing, I hope there will be another opportunity in the future.

About ABD

The following is a quote from the official ABD website .

What is ABD?

Explanation by the developer, Sotaro Takenouchi:

ABD is an entirely new reading method that allows both people who are not fond of reading and those who love books to read the books they want in a short period of time.

Through the process of dividing the book, summarizing it, presenting and sharing the summaries, and engaging in discussions,
participants can deeply understand what the author is trying to convey, leading to active insights and learning.
Additionally, by combining the active reading experience of each participants through group reading and discussion, the learning deepens further,
and there is potential for new relationships to be fostered.
I sincerely hope that through ABD, everyone can take better steps in their reading, driven by their intrinsic motivation.

The process

1. Co-summarize
   • Participants bring their own books or divide one book into sections. Each person reads their assigned section and creates a summary.
2. Relay presentation
   • Each participants presents their summary in a relay format.
3. Dialogue
   • Participants pose questions, discuss their impressions and thoughts, deepening their understanding.

The appeal of ABD

1. Short reading time
   • ABD allows you to read a book in a short amount of time while gaining a deep understanding of the author's intensions and content. It’s perfect for those who tend to accumulate unread books.
2. Summaries remain
   • After an Active Book Dialogue® session, the summaries remain, making it easy to review and share the key points with others who haven’t read the book.
3. High retention rate
   • Since participants are mindful of presenting when they input and summarize information, followed by immediate output and discussion, the content sticks in memory more effectively.
4. Deep insights and emergence
   • Engaging in dialogue with diverse people, each bringing their own questions and impressions, leads to profound learning and the emergence of new ideas.
5. Multifaceted personal growth
   • ABD helps participants develop focus, summarization, presentation, communication, and dialogue skills, which are all crucial for leadership in today’s world.
6. Creation of a common language
   • When the same team members participate, they share the same level of knowledge, creating a common language.
7. Community building
   • With just one book, you can create a space for dialogue and connect with others, making it ideal for casual community building.
8. Most importantly, it’s fun!
   • The immediate sharing of the excitement and learning gained from reading enriches the experience and, most importantly, makes it enjoyable.

Personally, I find the value in 1. Short reading time, 6. Creation of a common language, 7. Community building, and 8. Most importantly, it’s fun! to be exceptionally high.

On the day

The book was divided into 15 sections. This was the first time I had seen such a sight! lol

The book was divided into sections

1. Co-summarize (20 minutes) Each participants read their part and create a summary. We were given 20 minutes to read and summarize the book onto three A4 sheets, which was quite challenging. I was so pressed for time that I forgot to take any pictures.

2. Relay Presentation (1 minute 30 seconds per person x 15 people) Each participant posted their summaries on the wall. The Summaries everyone prepared

Then, each person presented their summary in 1 minute and 30 seconds.

Everyone’s summaries and presentations were outstanding. This is the photo of me presenting. I was so nervous, and the time was so short that I can’t remember what I said at all!

My presentation

3. Dialogue (25 minutes) In this part, we picked three sections from the presentations, and divided into groups to discuss them further. I joined the group focused on "Becoming a team that can help each other."

Group discussion

Within the group were Scrum Masters and Engineering Managers, and we exchanged various opinions. One particularly memorable discussion was about how we should build teams where people can challenge themselves with what they love, whether it’s their forte (specialty) or something they struggle with (growth opportunity).

What I learned from the book through ABD

Up until now, I had never used "OKR" (Objectives and Key Results) as a method for goal management, but my understanding of OKR has deepened through this experience. I also learned how crucial it is for a team to set goals driven by intrinsic motivation when creating goals. What stood out to me was the importance of setting goals through discussions within the team, rather than using a top-down approach.

Additionally, I was struck by the idea that what truly matters is the “achievement of goals,” not just the “completion of tasks.” The notion that “sometimes, you need the courage to abandon lower priority tasks” was a new perspective for me.

Moreover, the breakdown of reasons why we might feel like we don’t have enough time to achieve our goals, such as

1. genuinely not having enough time,
2. being unsure if the time investment is worthwhile,
3. or lacking the motivation,

was something I had never considered before.

While the idea of “genuinely not having enough time” is easy to grasp, the concepts of “not being sure if it’s worth the time" and "lacking motivation" were new to me, though they resonated with my own experience.

The book also offered solutions to these challenges, so I would like to read the book and review it.

Thoughts

It was my first time experiencing ABD, and I found it both stimulating and very enjoyable. Since all the participants on the day were genuinely interested in book we discussed, the presentations and dialogues were highly constructive, and I learned a lot.

I’m considering trying ABD at our company as well, by gathering team members who are interested.

However, I also felt that the operational difficulty could be quite high for the following reasons:

• Facilitators need strong skills because the session must proceed within a limited time.
• Co-summarizing is challenging, which might lead to differences in the quality of summaries and presentations depending on the participants.
• Selecting the right book and gathering team members could be difficult.

I’ve participated in book study groups several times before, but I found that they often pose challenges like the burden of continuity over a long period and the individual workload (depending on the format of the book study group). In contrast, ABD offers a great alternative by wrapping up the session in a short time, which helps to overcome those drawbacks. However, the trade-off might be a lower understanding of the book due to the shorter session time.

I think it’s important to carefully select the book and have prior discussions with participants to determine the most suitable reading method.