A Great Retrospective

High-performing teams share a key characteristic: they continuously improve. Organizing a retrospective ritual can help instill this habit. At first glance, the goal of a retrospective seems simple: the team learns from the past period to do better in the next. Each retrospective strives to achieve this. But what distinguishes a good retrospective from a poor one? In this blog, we’ll explore how to improve your retrospectives and focus on the essential elements.

Characteristics of a Successful Retrospective

A Structure That Supports the Team and Its Goals

Retrospectives are not unique in this regard: some meetings can become tedious! At times, the meeting may seem like a goal in itself, producing few tangible results. In my experience, the agenda of a retrospective should at least include the following:

• Together Alone: Start the meeting with 10 minutes for everyone to write their input on sticky notes and post them on the board. This ensures that everyone has a voice and all feedback is captured. Afterward, discuss these as a team.

• Team-Specific Structure: Tailor the structure to the team’s personality preferences. For example, teams with a “sensing” preference focus on concrete details and experiences, requiring a different approach than teams that look at the bigger picture.

• Conclusion: Dedicate time to summarize the outcomes of the retrospective and the agreed actions. This helps the team see what has been achieved in just one hour.

Clear Learning Points

One of the most painful outcomes for a team is identifying valuable pain points or successes without acting on them. Recently, I saw this happen: “I didn’t have the right information before starting,” someone noted. The team moved on quickly with, “Okay, too bad. Next?” There was no reflection on team behavior or actions to improve. Similarly, I’ve seen teams brush off positive feedback: “Great success! Next?” But what did we learn from it? What set this success apart from others? What did we do well here? Ensure these questions are asked and that learning points are clearly articulated.

Focus on Process and Collaboration

A good retrospective gives the team space to discuss collaboration in an open and safe way. This is the time to put everything on the table, always with a focus on improvement. It’s crucial to keep the discussion centered on processes. As the Mercedes F1 team says in Netflix’s Drive to Survive: “Always blame the process, not the person.” Identifying processes that need improvement can quickly lead to actionable steps. Encourage the team to experiment with small adjustments to processes, and review these in subsequent retrospectives. This allows the team to improve rapidly!

Tips & Tricks

• Create an Agenda That Fits the Team’s Profile: Does your team have a “sensing” preference? Focus the agenda on the bigger picture to balance the team’s detail-oriented nature. Unsure of your team’s profile? Develop a team profile with an MBTI assessment and team exercise.

• Use a Fixed Structure but Vary the Format: Leverage creative templates from tools like Miro to keep things fresh. For example, one week, use a Start/Stop/Continue format, and another, a Sailboat retrospective. However, remember: changing the template doesn’t change your agenda! Keep the agenda consistent so the team knows what to expect. In this blog, I provide an example of a retrospective that enhances team empathy.

• Appoint a Facilitator: This person ensures the agenda is followed and asks deeper questions when needed. For well-aligned teams, rotating this role can be helpful.

• Document Key Information During the Retrospective:

• Feedback given (to identify trends over time).

• Actions and improvements identified, along with action owners.

• Results of previous experiments discussed in retrospectives.

Improving Your Retrospective

In the coming weeks, we’ll publish more blogs on how team personalities impact retrospectives and what you can do with this insight! Interested? Follow Mark Your Progress on LinkedIn!

Want to learn more about improving your retrospectives? Schedule an introductory meeting with Mark Your Progress or follow us on LinkedIn for the latest insights.