Are your retrospectives producing results?
Murray Robinson
A No-Nonsense Leader transforming corporate strategy into practical results
Retrospectives can be one of the most potent team and organizational improvement tools. Yet, let’s be honest—most teams aren’t getting any value out of them.
Here’s how retrospectives typically go:
A facilitator asks, "What went well? What didn’t?" Team members hesitate to raise genuine issues, fearing repercussions, so they stick to safe, minor topics. Maybe someone mentions a well-known problem. Notes are taken, and after 15 minutes, the discussion is over. Later, the facilitator escalates the issue to a manager, who says that's how things are done here. Tell the team to stop complaining and focus on fixing internal issues. Nothing changes, morale drops, trust erodes, and improvement stalls.
Now, here’s how to run retrospectives that drive improvement:
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When done right, retrospectives catalyse continuous systemic improvement across the organisation. They help teams address root causes, empower better decision-making, and foster collaboration between teams and leadership.
The result is a culture of continuous improvement that delivers better outcomes for everyone.
This is basic stuff that everyone should be doing.
Managing Director . Anthropologist. IoT and Smart Cities Enthusiast
2 个月Unfortunately this method of working works well only when teams are either compensated market rate, supported by experienced competent leads or they have skin in the game by having equity. Otherwise it is a performative corporate dance. Mostly what I have seen is just more useless rituals performed by people who have no clue what agile is or the actual purpose of a retro.
Founder and CEO at BetterSoftware.dev | Revolutionizing Software Excellence | 25+ Years in Software Transformation & DevOps
2 个月A good retrospective builds on data. having clear KPIs for the effectiveness of each step in the SDLC makes it super easy to understand what needs to change and by how much for the next iteration
Improving the world by improving the people in it
2 个月> A facilitator asks, "What went well? What didn’t?" I think if you've still got this in place, you don't really have an empowered team taking responsibility but meeting attendees that are acquiescing to a coordinator that's ensuring the session plays out according to their directives. > Later, the facilitator escalates the issue to a manager Yup, more evidence that the team aren't stepping up but responding to a schoolteacher who the becomes the self-elected team representative. > and focus on fixing internal issues ... isn't that the purpose of a manager? And if that manager refuses to get internal issues fixed, then perhaps they're the issue themselves!
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2 个月"Revisiting previous action items” at the beginning of a Retrospective has merits, too, Murray Robinson. Many teams are great at collecting issues, not necessarily at fixing them.
Supply Chain Tech | Digital | Agile | Delivery | Product | Analysis & Design
2 个月In the past I found it useful to try & capture issues during stand-ups ie 'what's holding u back' as an input as people tend to forget stuff when they get to retro. In some instances it's better to stop development there & then & retro the issue straight away ie "pull the andon cord" if the issue is important enough. In regards to the actual retro, agree it's really important to focus deeply on key issues & for the facilitator to drive the team to understand root causes eg 5 whys. Surface level retros will capture stuff like the 'user story took longer than we thought'. Retro facilitation is not well trained - it's almost better not to do retros if you don't have a great facilitator, otherwise people will just hate the process/not see value.