Retrospective meetings are an opportunity to improve how your teams work. Don’t miss out on this opportunity.
Retrospectives can be hard to facilitate with experienced teams. The perception is there is little left to improve, “we already know how to work together, so let’s get back to doing the work”.
Think of the retrospective as if it is a “half time” during a basketball game. Even professional and experienced teams regroup to talk about how they can play the current game better. Scrum teams can likewise talk about how to improve from the past and future sprints.
The beginning of the retrospective meeting is critical for setting the tone. There should always be the feeling of safety and constructive discussion. Everyone should feel comfortable and non-threatened to speak. The facilitator, whether the Scrum Master or someone else, is key to having the team stay focused. If teams are struggling to have a productive meeting, try bringing in a facilitator who is outside the team and will be objective.
My favorite tip for retrospectives is to use the “thank you” activity. Near the beginning of the meeting, ask “Is there someone you would like to thank?”
Software engineers generally tend to be introverts, thinking types more than feeling (see Myers & Briggs T vs F). I am always surprised at the number of people willing to speak up. There was the team member who had seen a similar problem before and could therefore help a developer who was new to the feature. There was a team member who was experienced on a compiler or tool and could help jump start a new engineer. There was the QA engineer who quickly identified a bug and collaborated with the developer until the code was fixed.
Success is measured as a team and requires helping each other. The “thank you” is the opportunity to recognize individuals for teamwork.
For other tips on improving your retrospectives, check out the Agile Retrospective Resource Wiki. And “thank you” for reading our blogs at Agile2Success.com.
