It is sometimes quite a challenge: finding a balance between time for your customers and spending time on internal projects. The latter, in particular, often threatens to fade into the background due to hustle and bustle. And that while it contributes to the development of your organization and people enjoy doing it. Our experience in a nutshell: give everyone the space to contribute to internal projects, divided into clearly defined and manageable chunks. In this article, you can read how we do that at Summiteers.
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Our monthly team meeting: The ROTS

After a few years of thoughtful experimentation, our internal projects now have a fairly short lead time. This is largely thanks to the format we found for our monthly team meeting: the “ROTS”. ROTS is an abbreviation for ROpe Tteam Summiteers and stands for a group of mountaineers who are connected to each other with a safety rope. We thought that was an appropriate term for the way we work, because our entire team meets every month to discuss internal projects and then carry them out in groups. In addition, the ROTS is part of an agile system, in which we organize and prioritize internal projects. We will come back to this in a moment.

We really take the time for the ROTS, which usually amounts to an entire afternoon. We think it's important that — in addition to a relevant content program — it's a fun afternoon that everyone wants to attend. That is why we often discuss case studies, sometimes invite a speaker and there is room for lightness. Every month, for example, there is an 'election' for the 'f*ck up of the month' trophy, which is always won by someone who has made an educational slip-up.

Keeping an entire afternoon free every month with all Summiteers is, of course, valuable time that we want to spend well. That is why, in the run-up to the ROTS, there is a facilitator who critically monitors a well-prepared program that is relevant to everyone in terms of content. This is done in consultation with the entire team, with everyone reading in advance. The facilitator is also tight on time during the ROTS, so that everyone is updated on the main lines. We do this in the form of short demos, where highlights are highlighted, questions can be asked and the group's opinion is collected.

At the last item on the agenda, we divide our joint time between the internal projects. We will then briefly review each project, with everyone having the opportunity to join a project before the next month. This is now possible at a rapid pace, thanks to the content preparation of the project owners. This prevents us from having to have plenary substantive discussions.
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Our agile system for internal projects

In order to be able to distribute the work smoothly and to ensure that the work remains manageable and doable, it is important to have a well-functioning process for this.

Although we were initially inclined to make big plans, we now work with one-month sprints using an agile approach. As a result, we divide the work into well-organized sub-projects where we can spend our available hours. We notice that this keeps the focus and fun much better during an internal project.

The approach consists of three steps that we go through every month.

1. Defining projects into manageable chunks of work (PBIs)

2. Prioritizing & inventorying available time

3. Sharing the results of completed PBIs and distributing new PBIs

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1. Defining projects into manageable chunks of work

Each major project — an EPIC — has a project owner who initially forms a vision for the project, in coordination with one Summiteers partner who acts as a sponsor. In addition, the project owner divides the project into PBIs and is responsible for keeping track of changes and prioritizing the backlog. In doing so, PBIs have a clear goal, a correct time estimation and a clear “definition of done”. An EPIC can be initiated by anyone. This means that there is both the freedom to start new initiatives and our partners can steer the wider course of the organization.

2. Prioritizing & inventorying available time

In preparation for the ROTS, all PBIs are mutually prioritized by one of the partners, so that, in order of added value, they are ready to be distributed over the available time of all Summiteers. Furthermore, everyone specifies the available time in advance, which greatly speeds up the distribution of internal projects during the ROTS.

3. Sharing the results of completed PBIs and distributing new PBIs

During the ROTS, we share the highlights of completed PBIs in a short demo. By involving the group on a monthly basis, it is possible to use the group's brainpower briefly cyclically, to further shape a project and possibly to make adjustments. In addition, there is a lot of variety in internal projects, because every month we choose what to work on.
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Why it works for us

The ROTS and our related agile way of working form an approach that makes our internal projects organized and manageable. This way, we can work cyclically quickly and briefly with plenty of room for personal input and variety. This means that we enjoy building Summiteers step by step every month, in addition to working for our customers. In doing so, we have developed an effective group process that contributes to the internal cooperation, enthusiasm and appreciation of the entire group. In short, for us, working on internal projects is' sacred 'and with the ROTS, we can continue to do that.

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