Week Notes: Vol. 3 – № 13

The Agile coin game and a twist that changes everything

I first learned about the Agile coin game during an orientation week at a previous consulting firm.

The activity goes by other names: the coin flip game or penny game – sometimes Scrum or Lean are thrown into the title too.

Most versions of the game focus on batch size, throughput, and tuning for efficiency.

The one I played had a wrinkle I've never seen or read about anywhere else. It uses the coins to expose something teams rarely see coming: that moving work faster and delivering value are not the same thing.

Like an ancient tribal story, it seems to only exist in the memories of the people who worked at this company. Apparently, nobody ever wrote it down.

The Value Twist

When I learned the game, all the coins were not treated equally. Each coin retained its inherent value – but that’s never communicated.

Mid-way through the final round, the facilitator interrupts the activity and asks the teams to count up the dollar value of what has reached the end so far.

That moment is the whole point of the activity. People realize they've been so focused on moving coins and not about the value being shipped.

It’s like they’ve taken the red pill and the Matrix has been revealed.

Here's everything you need to run it yourself.

What You Need

You’ll also need a way for each team to keep track of time. This is usually the stopwatch function on someone’s phone or another device.

It helps if the space you’re working in has a couple longer tables for people to stand or sit side-by-side.

Why 10 pennies? This is part of the wrinkle. Typically there are 5 of each coin. Using 10 pennies taps into a few psychological principles.

We treat higher numbers as more important. Salience bias draws us to whatever stands out visually, and the denomination effect reinforces this. Anchoring is added when the first coin is chosen, setting an implicit standard that shapes our choices.

Roles

You need at least 2 teams each with 4 people or more. Assuming there are 4 people per team, 3 are assigned to be workers and 1 is the manager.

Game rules

The game is pretty straightforward.

Each coin must be flipped and then passed to the next person in the chain, who does the same. Once all coins have been worked by every worker, they are considered "done."

All coins start with the same side facing up – heads or tails. Once someone flips the coins, the next person in the chain flips them the opposite way. Repeat until done.

The work is flipping each coin one at a time from heads to tails, or tails to heads, with only one hand.

Iterative rounds

You’re ready to begin when each team is in position, roles are assigned, and rules are understood.

As the facilitator you’ll guide multiple rounds or iterations of this activity. Just as in Agile, you’ll have teams do the work, then reflect and adjust.

The number of rounds you run will depend on your group size, how much time you have, and session structure. You may want to offer suggestions for slowly winnowing down the batches to one coin at a time “for the sake of experimentation.”

Manager reflection: In addition to timekeeping, I like to have the manager reflect first since they are observing the whole process. This also keeps them engaged.

Sometimes they make comments about how one person performed the work compared to another and suggests improvements. Other times they notice that the first person was slower but the rest of the team learned from their struggles and adapted.

Round 1

Batch of 25: Workers may only pass the coins to the next person once all 25 coins in the batch are flipped. Once the batch reaches the end, record the time and have the full group reflect (do a retrospective) on what could be improved.

Round 2

Smaller batches: Again adjust this based on how much time you have and group size. This could be batches of 10, 5, or 2 coins. Once the last batch reaches the end, record the time and have the full group reflect (a retrospective) on what could be improved.

Repeat as necessary.

Final round

Batch of 1: Workers flip each coin and then pass it one by one to the next worker as soon as they've flipped it. This is where you introduce the twist.

Once a few coins have made it to the end, stop the teams and ask them to count the dollar value of what has been completed so far.

Don't say anything else. Just let them do the math.

The room usually goes quiet for a second. Then it clicks.

The “Aha!” moment

Some teams pile up more pennies and nickels while the quarters sit waiting. They optimized for motion, not value.

This exercise leads people to focus on the process (flipping, passing, efficiency). They naturally lose sight of what they’re actually delivering. Not all of the coins are the same. Not every task in your backlog holds the same value.

This is what the whole activity builds toward. In real work, teams fall into the same trap: measuring progress by how much got done rather than what it was worth.

The coins illustrate this point in a way that's hard to argue with.

Variations & observations

Customer role: I’ve also seen rule iterations with a “customer” who keeps track of how long it takes for all the work to be completed.

For remote individuals: This activity works best in person but can be adjusted for distributed groups or departments where the majority of people are local.

I usually nominate these people to be managers and divvy up their duties. Perhaps one tracks individual completion and another keeps track of total time, like a “customer” would.

This helps remote people stay engaged and focused. Although it also assumes the room is set up with a decent camera so they can see what their team is doing.

Arbitrary rules & distractions: To dial things up during the middle rounds, you could offer rules that make bigger batches feel faster without actually improving anything, such as using both hands, stacking batches before passing them on, or announcing “done!” when all coins have been passed.

A penny for your thoughts

The next time you hear talk about increasing velocity, adding throughput, or just getting more done – remember the coins.

Speed without intention is just motion.

The goal isn’t to move faster, it’s to deliver what matters most.