Retrospectives: you either love them or hate them…
Retrospection, or the act of recalling things in the past can be such a powerful experience when done regularly. You get to reflect on different aspects, taking a step back, acknowledging all the great things that have happened, noting lessons learnt and taking preventive or improvement action.
I personally love retrospection and am happily practicing it on a regular basis at work and in my life. I recall so many Fridays when I was in the train and scribbling thoughts: what went well this week, what I wish went differently and can I do something about it? This mindset helped me over and over again to try out different things, to learn and grow. Also, it really helped me to tame my inner critic and acknowledge all the great things that I am doing.
At work, as a team member, facilitator and coach, I have experienced many retrospectives on a regular or ad-hoc basis. Usually everyone in the team gathers together, collects data on what happened in the past period, reflects on it: e.g, what we nailed, what we failed and what we would consider doing better next time. This tends to result in team growth, team collaboration and team performance.
Although retrospectives can bring great outcomes for a team, a lot of times, things go in the opposite way: team members are dreading the retro and/or managers see it as a waste of time, no added value and return on time invested.
Here are my top 6 patterns and top 6 anti-patterns collected through facilitating and being a member of a retrospective (list is obviously non-exhaustive 🙂)
Anti-patterns:
Retros are transformed into a “moaning” show where everyone is complaining without taking a responsibility or an action
Retros become a blaming game and leads to disconnection and mistrust in the team
Retros ends up to be a “Get to know each other”: e.g. a 30 minute ice-breaker and little to no time to actually review the past period, let alone, take an action.
“I do not have influence in changing anything so what is the point in even talking about it…”
Lots of energy and enthusiasm at first but no real commitment or willingness to take time for improvements and experimentation between retrospectives.
A lot of chatter and discussion but no conclusions
Patterns:
Retros are a safe-space where people feel free to share openly and honestly what does not go well without judgment or blame
Participants focus on the problem to be solved and not the people who may have contributed to it. Bringing data and facts helps a great deal with that.
The teams take a brief connection moment as they check-in and the main focus is reviewing the past event, finding solutions. It is more than needed to get to know each other and by all means, do it regularly as well. Just it would not be fair to confuse this with a retro
Distinguish between your circle of influence and your circle of control: I get it, a team is not in isolation and is part of a system. You may not be able to change absolutely everything. So, stay focused on your circle of control when you choose what you would like to act on. At the same time, if the same big problem occurs all over again and you do not have control over it, consider what your level of influence is and who you can ask for help.
Prioritize the non-urgent and important things in your backlog: If you are not willing to actually dedicate some time to run small experiments because you are in a firefight mode all the time, you will never get out of your hamster wheel…
It is healthy to spice up your retros and trying new formats can generate innovative ideas. Do it too often though and this may well lead to confusion and chaos.
Whether you have facilitated loads of retros or you are new at this and trying your best to run them in an efficient way, the 5 stages of Successful retrospectives can be always always be a helpful anchor:
Set the stage
Gather data
Generate insights
Decide what to do
Close the retrospective
And do not forget the prime directive: "Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand."
--Norm Kerth, Project Retrospectives: A Handbook for Team Review
Have fun making success out of your retros!
