Retrospectives

Retrospectives have to be positive. They have to be blameless, and the goal is to continuously improve ourselves, our team, and our processes.

Low participation

Low participation during a retrospective can prevent a project team from making meaningful process improvements. Some effective techniques to encourage participation include:

Pose a group question and ask for individual responses.

It may be helpful to pose a question like, "What was one success and one challenge you experienced on this project?" and then ask each team member to share. Beyond that, be sure to create a safe environment for honest discussion, model exemplary participation, and review the project timeline.

Model the kind of participation you'd like to elicit from your team.

You can model participation by sharing your own examples of successes and challenges. Beyond that, be sure to create a safe environment for honest discussion, pose questions and ask for responses, and review the project timeline.

Review the project timeline.

You can share the project timeline to ensure the retrospective covers more than just recent successes and challenges. This may help the team to think further back in the project life cycle. Beyond that, be sure to create a safe environment, model exemplary participation, and pose questions and ask for responses.

Establish a safe environment for the team.

To create a safe environment, remind the team that the retrospective is a meeting free from stakeholders or customers. You should also tell them that it's safe to discuss problems. Beyond that, be sure to model participation, pose questions and ask for responses, and review the project timeline.

Accountability vs blame

Blame shuts people down instead of empowering them to share honestly. Accountability doesn't involve assigning blame to specific team members for mistakes. Instead, it encourages the team to think holistically about mistakes and challenges in identify solutions for the future. Another benefit of accountability is that it encourages ownership. When a team member feels ownership over an aspect of the project, they may be more motivated throughout the project to ensure that aspect meets quality standards and helps the project progress towards the goal.

Accountability includes:

  • Being responsible for decisions associated with a project or task.
  • Encouraging the team to think holistically about mistakes and challenges.
  • Encouraging ownership.

Techniques to encourage accoutability

  • Come prepared with specific challenges to discuss as a group
  • Turn team complaints into smart action items
  • Push the team to idenfity its role in create a given challenge

  • Detach the challenge being discussed from any specific person in the room

  • Encourages ownership. A retrospective is a tool for process improvement, so participants need to be honest about improving performance. This is rooted in accountability, which helps team members feel ownership over an aspect of the project.
  • Encourages the team to think holistically about mistakes. Accountability encourages team members to think holistically about mistakes and challenges. This helps the retrospective serve as a tool for process improvement.
  • Identifies solutions for the future. Accountability encourages team members to think holistically, share honestly, and identify solutions for the future. This means that the retrospective can serve as a tool for process improvement.

Addressing negativity

Ask yourself, is this conversation likely to feel stressful for the team?

Techniques for addressing negativity:

  • Aim to set a positive tone at the start of the meeting
  • Determine how you will set the tone of the meeting
  • Try anticipating any potential negativity by meeting one on one with team members before the retrospective happens.
    • Does this person feel insecure about the value they add to this team?
    • Does this person receive negative feedback on the quality of their work?
  • Consider asking team members individually to share their thoughts.
  • Call a meeting break
  • Anticipate potential negativity by meeting one-on-one with team members in advance.