Conducting Good Retrospectives #22
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| image_desc: Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash | ||
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| Your team has probably experienced moments of success or failure, moments of working like a well-oiled-machine or not being able to stand the sound of each other's voices. What you've probably also done is pass these moments by without taking time to ponder "Why did these things happen"? |
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well oiled machine - no hyphens necessary
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| Setting aside dedicated time for these matters assures that they will get some attention and helps keep these conversations from spilling into normal work time (this isn't to say that you shouldn't discuss something when it happens). | ||
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| Along with **learning from your successes and failures**, one of the goals of a retrospective to **build trust amongst your team**. Teams perform better when they operate in an environment of [psychological safety](https://hbr.org/2017/08/high-performing-teams-need-psychological-safety-heres-how-to-create-it). |
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I like the trust-building angle but I didn't see anything later that emphasized or exemplified the idea.
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| #### Conversational Turn Taking | ||
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| It's very important that everyone can be heard. Your team should decide on a signal that makes it clear you have something to say next. My team has opted to use a finger raise when you want to say something. Once the person currently speaking is done, they or the facilitator would motion to the next person in line to speak. |
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You could link to Google's Project Aristotle, which found that psychological safety and conversational turn-taking were the two factors most associated with performing teams.
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| #### Sprint Retrospective | ||
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| During the Sprint Retrospective we use the [Four Quadrant](http://www.funretrospectives.com/lessons-learned-quadrants-planning-vs-success/) activity. As with the Mid-Sprint retro, the chosen facilitator will explain the activity and pass out the required supplies. |
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The grid that we do isn't exactly the Four Quadrant activity. The axes are different and the execution is different. We can chat in-person if you'd like.
When I first ran the grid thing, part of the activity was supposed to be the group collaborating on where to put the various event-stickies on a given axis. I think that part has been lost over the last couple of years. I wonder if it was worthwhile...
Incidentally this paragraph gave me a neat idea for a different retro activity. Remind me to talk to you later. 😄
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Interesting, I did notice that the activity described in that link wasn't exactly like how I described it, but I figured it was similar enough to keep the link.
I think I'll add a bit about how this is a slightly different take on that activity
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the group collaborating on where to put the various event-stickies on a given axis
It's a pretty time consuming part of the activity, and most people seemed to feel it didn't add much value.
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| Done right, retrospectives can be a boon for successful and struggling teams alike. | ||
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| The goal is to **build a culture of trust** amongst your team, where everyone has the freedom to express themselves without the fear of being punished for making a mistake or speaking their mind. If there are barriers to bringing up problems your team is having, you can never expect to be able to work through them and improve. |
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Amongst? Using arcane language isn't behooving.
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I didn't realize amongst was an old word lol.
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| Your team has probably experienced moments of success or failure, moments of working like a well-oiled-machine or not being able to stand the sound of each other's voices. What you've probably also done is pass these moments by without taking time to ponder "Why did these things happen"? | ||
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| This is when your team holds a __retrospective__. |
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| ### What is a retrospective? | ||
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| A retrospective (or "retro") is a recurring meeting used by teams to look back at the last week or two in order to figure out what went well and what went poorly. The realm of topics is wide ranging: from missing deadlines to mishandled social interactions. These meetings aren't just to make you feel good or bad about yourselves, they're designed to curate items on which your team will take action after the meeting. |
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"last week or two" or sprint or delivery or day or mobbing session or...
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| ### What is a retrospective? | ||
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| A retrospective (or "retro") is a recurring meeting used by teams to look back at the last week or two in order to figure out what went well and what went poorly. The realm of topics is wide ranging: from missing deadlines to mishandled social interactions. These meetings aren't just to make you feel good or bad about yourselves, they're designed to curate items on which your team will take action after the meeting. |
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"wide ranging": could you include a positive example too? 😁
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| A retrospective (or "retro") is a recurring meeting used by teams to look back at the last week or two in order to figure out what went well and what went poorly. The realm of topics is wide ranging: from missing deadlines to mishandled social interactions. These meetings aren't just to make you feel good or bad about yourselves, they're designed to curate items on which your team will take action after the meeting. | ||
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| Setting aside dedicated time for these matters assures that they will get some attention and helps keep these conversations from spilling into normal work time (this isn't to say that you shouldn't discuss something when it happens). |
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The combination of sentence length + parenthetical phrasing makes it a bit hard to parse.
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| #### Facilitation | ||
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| Someone should volunteer to facilitate the meeting. This person will lead the chosen activity for the meeting. Depending on the activity, this can include: keeping a conversation timer, taking notes, or tracking whose turn it is to speak. |
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Is it worth noting that these activities can be done by different people - or does that just muddy the waters?
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| Free form conversation is not conducive to reaching conclusions, so it helps to pick a meeting format that fits well with your team. At the beginning of the meeting, the facilitator will explain the format and confirm that everyone is okay with that decision. Different formats optimize for different aspects of your team: project performance, interpersonal communication, or general frustration. | ||
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| Picking a format gives the **meeting structure** and often an **objective**, allowing the team to work together towards a known and common goal. |
| - Limit to 5 minutes | ||
| 1. Vote on topics | ||
| 1. Discuss topics | ||
| - Limit to 5 minutes, then vote on continuing with a 2 minute extension, or else move on to next topic. |
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Is it worth noting that we tinkered with the 5/2 durations - or does that just muddy the waters?
| - Limit to 5 minutes, then vote on continuing with a 2 minute extension, or else move on to next topic. | ||
| - Facilitator will take notes and track action items. | ||
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| Any topics that aren't discussed are carried over to the next meeting, unless the author states otherwise. |
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Is it worth noting that we allowed anyone to keep a topic alive?
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| #### Mid-Sprint Retrospective | ||
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| During the Mid-Sprint Retrospective, we engage in the [Lean Coffee](http://leancoffee.org) activity (unless someone suggests an alternate activity!). The chosen facilitator will explain the chosen activity and pass out the required supplies. |
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Verb-tense is back-and-forth throughout the post: 'engage' or 'engaged'?
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| #### Sprint Retrospective | ||
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| During the Sprint Retrospective we use the [Four Quadrant](http://www.funretrospectives.com/lessons-learned-quadrants-planning-vs-success/) activity. As with the Mid-Sprint retro, the chosen facilitator will explain the activity and pass out the required supplies. |
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| **Escalate** - bad and out of your control: these events can only be addressed by someone external to your team. Now is the time to figure out with who to escalate the issue, or assign someone the action of figuring that out later. | ||
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| **Kudos** - good and out of your control: these are positive events that were caused by someone external to your team. Here the team will assign an action to someone to reach out and express the team's gratitude. | ||
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I feel like a sticky being "in the middle" or "on the line" is common enough that it deserves a mention and explanation. What do you think?
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| Starting in the top right corner and moving counter clockwise, the team discusses the events in an attempt to learn. If your team is prone to drawing out discussions, consider using a Lean Coffee style discussion timer. | ||
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| **Keep doing** - good and in your control: give yourselves a quick pat on the back to celebrate good work. |
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Potentially also discuss how to enable the team to continue these things (if, say, a sticky was about an experiment).
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