I recently wrote a feature story called Agile World's A Stage, a look at agile training coaches that teach improvisational theatre and other artistic forms for agile development. I got to speak with some interesting folks, among them Matt Smith, a Seattle-based corporate trainer with a love of improvisational performance. Smith said some of his improv exercises are about putting people in situations that aren't work related, and giving people tasks that are difficult for a team to do, but not an individual. One of those exercises is what he called the "Dear Jerry letter," in which people verbally write a letter, alternating words as they speak. On my phonecall with Smith, I tried such a letter, and it went something like this (Smith started at "Dear," and we alternated every other word from there):

"Dear...Jerry...It's...Great...To...Talk...About...You...Especially...Because...I...Am...Afraid...Of...The...Dark."

And what does that mean? Not a clue. The only thing I can draw from that is "Jerry" would stop talking to me if he got a letter like that. Smith acknowledged its a simple, silly exercise, but explained the point and how it relates to agile development. "Some people have a very hard time moving anything forward because everyone's watching and there's pressure," he said. "For example, in the letter, when it came to 'I am afraid of the...' you had to say something that moved the story forward. If you were to say 'Because I am afraid of the other,' that would be a failure to define anything. 'Dark' was the logical thing. This type of exercise puts people in touch with this sort of group thinking."