How to Run a High-Performing Retrospective
What is a Retrospective?
A retrospective activity involves looking at past successes and failures to learn from them. Retrospective activities at the end of a sprint or when completing a new project are the optimal time to reflect on the goals and challenges faced and what was done to achieve and mitigate them. It can also help you identify any risks that may have surfaced along the way and develop strategies to avoid them in the future.
“We love team retrospective activities. They help us improve our collaboration, promote transparency and create better features.”
Team members need to feel comfortable giving honest feedback during retrospectives. Define the period, discuss topics, and focus on improvements. Create a culture where constructive feedback is given and taken. All involved must be ready and willing to hear the truth without taking anything personally.
The retrospective ensures that everyone can share feedback without one or two people hijacking it. Team members use sticky notes (or a digital platform like Google Jamboard when remote teammates are involved). Each member writes what they like, and the group reads each statement aloud. This ensures everyone's voice is heard, even those more hesitant to speak up in a group.
Identify emerging trends from team feedback. Develop tactical next steps to turn feedback into action for the next iteration. Sharing themes and the next steps immediately after the retrospective is imperative to encourage positive activities and processes.
Outcomes of Retrospective
Promote transparency and accountability to teammates.
Create better features by focusing on user needs.
Improve collaboration among team members.
Reduce risk by fixing problems before they escalate.
Retrospective Workshop Sequence
Welcome | Establish purpose and goals for the retrospective.
Introduce Attendees
Set the Context
Clarify Purpose
Icebreaker | Set the tone to get people comfortable.
Break the Ice (check out our ice-breaker games)
Focus Participants
Kick-off
Retrospective | Partake in a facilitated, in-depth discussion.
Understand Pain Points
Celebrate Wins
Share Insight
Reflect | Discuss new insight to plan your path forward.
Consider Pain Points
Leverage Learning
Plan Next Steps
This sequence works for both rapid and full retrospectives. Not sure which is right for your team? Check out below, where we walk you through the benefits of each format.
What is a Rapid Retrospective?
In the modern, fast-paced world, you know all too well how limited time is, especially when working together as a team. You need all the help you can get to stay productive and creative. Running a retrospective to reflect on sprints, product or service launches, milestones, or overall team morale is an essential part of building great teams and businesses.
Sure, it's essential to find areas for improvement, but some teams feel they need to be more energized by lengthy retrospectives, especially with ever-shrinking deadlines. A rapid retrospective is, precisely as it sounds, a 30-minute team touchpoint focused on reflecting on a recent milestone, launch, or sprint.
It's the perfect solution for teams who need to improve without spending hours in a meeting. With this brief but effective way of evaluating progress and identifying improvement areas, teams can adapt and move on to the next goal.
What is a Full Retrospective?
The end of a sprint or significant project is always a time to reflect – but why settle for a rapid debrief when you can have an in-depth, action-driven retrospective? If you've ever wished you had a crystal ball for your projects, a full retrospective is the next best thing – a chance to uncover the underlying issues and share insight, and taking more time to discuss a solid action plan.
Full retrospectives range in length from 35 minutes to 50 minutes, leaving time for context setting and a warm-up question or two. They include a built-in, more in-depth debrief and can help you and your team better assess goals, challenges, and successes.
One of our favourite Full Retrospectives is Rose, Bud, and Thorn. We explain below and provide a free in-person, online, or hybrid template.
Retrospective Workshop: Rose, Bud, Thorn
This classic is an easy-to-understand retrospective and an excellent format to collect honest feedback from your team creatively. This retrospective activity uncovers hidden values and builds on success while creating a safe space to air concerns. In addition, it builds trust among your Team by providing a fun format for taking a step back to look at the big picture.
Rose, Bud, and Thorn: Prompts
Roses: What you liked
Buds: What you'd build on
Thorns: What you didn't like
Planning an in-person workshop? Check out Christine’s Favourite Workshop Tools
From Post-it Notes to Name Tags, we've gathered a list of 9 recommended workshop tools every facilitator should have in their toolkit.
New Book: Run Effective Retrospectives
Run Effective Retrospectives’ is a step-by-step guide for planning and facilitating productive and collaborative retrospectives that help you identify challenges, opportunities, and actions for improvement.
You’ll learn how to:
Evaluate your team’s progress and performance using practical tools and techniques
Enhance your team’s dynamics, chemistry, and communication
Recognize and reward success and isolate and mitigate risks
Lead successful retrospectives that result in sound decisions and meaningful actions
Engage your team with fun and creative activities that liven up meetings and increase participation
This book is more than just a handbook; it’s a hands-on experience that will give you the skills and confidence to become a more competent and influential agile coach, product manager, or leader. You’ll also get access to exclusive online resources, such as templates, scripts, agendas, email invitations, checklists, worksheets, and more!
Don’t wait any longer; order your copy of ‘Run Effective Retrospectives’ today and take your team to the next level!
Get your copy today!
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