A sketchnote about my activities in the last months of 2015

Thilko Richter // Wed Dec 30 2015

On my first attendance of SoCraTes this year I got in touch with sketchnotes and since then I started to work with them in meetings and for my personal notetaking.

In September, when the time was really busy, I started to make an overview about my current activities - just to make sure that nothing gets lost. So what happened?

Coding Dojos

I´ve facilitated a couple of coding dojos in my company. We experimented with various topics, i.e. using a raspberry pi with attached breadboard to simulate a more embedded like environment. The challenge was to develop a binary clock with some led´s in TDD style.

In another session we worked with the diamond kata. With Emily´s repository solved the kata in incremental and iterative way.

My learning from the last dojos was that coming with a prepared IDE essential. Especially if you have short iterations, problems with your environment can slow you down significantly.

My plan for the next year is to continue the dojos with the raspberry pi.

Lean coffee

Coming from the idea to introduce change and foster discussions about the important themes I facilitate the lean coffee session at my company about more than one year now. My personal highlight was that we shifted the sessions from a closed meeting room to a public location at the coffee bar - a moment where I left my comfort zone. Since then the number of participants fluctuates between 4 and 15. Still hard to say how successful the sessions really are, but we had at least some fruitful discussions and started to raise awareness. The more important point on lean coffee is to get in touch with colleagues you normally not work with and build up networks. That´s something I would like foster next year again!

MetaNook

Tobias and I had a great talk about TDD(Chuck Norris doesn´t need a debugger, he writes tests!) at the university. We started with some theory and continued with a prepared kata. Afterwards we facilitated together with Florian a coding dojo with more than 30 participants.

Global day of code retreat

Lübeck was again part of the Global day of Code Retreat! This time we met at the Chaotikum, a cozy hackspace in the inner city of Lübeck. Tobias was the facilitator, I took care of the lunch and organized some video conferences. A great day again.

Kick-Off Competence Network

A bigger event in my company with more than 140 participants. We planned an open space and it should be my first open space as a moderator. But one day before the birth of my two daughters started - so I wasn´t able to moderate it but fortunately Sina took over my Job and it was a great event! I believe that the Open Space Technology is a key element in transforming an organization: true, honest and open discussions about things that are relevant for the people is the key.

Softwerkskammer

The Softwerkskammer Lübeck had a great year, with a lot of interesting talks and events. Have a look:

Kung Fu examination

Last but not least: my kung fu exercise for the green belt. I worked more than half a year for that. Thanks to Ulli - my wife - in supporting and pushing to not skip the training. After 5h intense training I earned the green belt! Finally, after 8 years!

All in one a really tough year and I am excited about the upcoming challenges in the next one.