9 Tips For More Effective Retros
When done correctly, a retrospective can be the most useful tool not just for a team, but for an entire organization.
When done correctly, a retrospective can be the most useful tool not just for a team, but for an entire organization.
Regardless of a company’s maturity level, retrospectives give space for individuals to bring up problems and successes that they’ve seen over a span of time. Like our products, being quick to inspect and iterate can go a long way for the teams we lead.
Here are some parts of retros that a lot of people get wrong, or mistakes I’ve seen in the past (or even made myself). If you’re able to incorporate any of these, you will see improvements over the next few retros conducted.
Keep it anonymous and blameless
By far, this is the most critical aspect of creating psychological safety in the room. If specifically called out, and especially if attacked, individuals will hold back the next time they’re asked for their feedback.
Retros are a time to collectively discuss situations and see how we can improve together. By keeping a retro blameless we can attack the problem, not the people that caused it.
Stop getting defensive
A common mistake for managers facilitating retros is to get defensive in the retro around a sensitive topic. I once had a Product Manager that lashed out during a retro and shut down an engineer, because the two saw a project outcome differently. No better way to halt the conversation than to become defensive when someone is trying to be productive and helpful.
Protect the room and the retro by paying attention to tension and when a topic may be getting difficult. Do your best to ask neutral questions and hear from both parties. Model the behaviors you wish to see and beware of defensive postures.
Start with an icebreaker
Some of the best teams I’ve been on had extremely deep and personal icebreakers at the beginning of retros. I found it got us all into the mindset that we were in that retro to make each other better and we were safe to voice our opinions.
A newly formed team or one that is still “storming” won’t be as comfortable off the bat, so start with some softballs and sprinkle in a more personal ice breaker to test the waters over time. Some starter questions:
Ted Lasso’s “First concert, best concert”
Work-appropriate would you rather questions
What album do you currently have on repeat?
What’s the best meal you ever had?
What three books are you most wanting to read right now?
Advanced: What has been your biggest heartbreak?
Remember to inspect “what went well”
Too often (I’m guilty of this as well), we speed past “what went well.”
“It went well, so there’s nothing to be learned from it. Let’s just pat ourselves on the back and move on.”
Wrong. Ask these follow-ups instead.
Why did it go well?
What can we continue doing that made this such a good thing?
Was it a particular teammate effort?
What changed?
How do we replicate this success?
If you’re looking for more reasons to focus on the bright spots, read Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. It goes into extreme depths on looking at how to copy/replicate success, and why attempting to do so generates better results.
Change the format
Monotony is the silent killer. We get accustomed to how things have always been and fall into comfortable habits. It may take the form of retros becoming less meaningful, so I like to shake things up and change formats from time to time. There are so many ways to perform a retro. My five favorites:
Start, Stop, Continue
Glad, Sad, Mad
The Pirate Ship (Sailboat)
Liked, Loved, Learned, Longed For
Keep, Add, Less, More
There’s really no wrong template for conducting a retro as long as you are leaving space for folks to solve problems together and discuss failures and successes.
Rotate facilitators
Really you should consider this for all meetings, but for retros especially, once you’ve laid the groundwork for what a good retro looks like, work on rotating who leads. When someone new facilitates, they bring a fresh perspective and may introduce something new to be used in future retros.
Rotating facilitators also give folks curious about management or leadership a chance to sit in the driver’s seat for a bit and manage tough discussions. Don’t choose this time to be an absentee manager, be available as a safety net in case the conversation goes south.
Otherwise, watch the team dynamics during the team retro to see if you can learn something new.
Watch out for retro hogs
Retro hogs are easy to spot. They’ve got something to say for every…single…card. Pay close attention during the retro and follow up after the retro is complete. In many cases, the individual may have no idea they were speaking up so much. In other cases it could be because no one else was, so they wanted to break the silence.
Continue working with retro hogs to help determine if their contributions are beneficial, or if it’s possible that you are missing out on the voices of others who would have spoken up.
If I notice a particular individual has been quiet the whole retro, I may ask directly, “Charles any thoughts on that?” In a remote environment it’s possible they feel like they can’t get their voice in fast enough, so instead, they stay quiet. Help pull people into the conversation while keeping the retro hogs at bay.
Invest in a tool
If the tooling is inflexible, so too will your retros be. Key components should include:
Anonymous input of cards
Easy grouping/sorting
Anonymous voting
Easy display of current topic
Ability to export action items
My favorite tool of all time for retros is TeamRetro. I am not affiliated with them at all, but it’s fairly low-cost and when a previous boss didn’t want to invest in it I ended up purchasing the software for my team out-of-pocket because I like it so much.
Sure you could do this manually on a board, Mural, or some other tool that gets you close, but the main goal should be to decrease the friction of participation. Especially in remote environments, a retro tool that is easy to navigate works well on mobile, and keeps the focus on the feedback is imperative.
Follow Through on Action Items
The easiest way to shut down future retros is to do nothing with the action items created. If a team doesn’t believe anything will change, they will stop giving their input. Hold yourself and your team accountable and try to wrap up action items within two weeks of the retro.
Final Thoughts
Retrospectives don’t have to be dull and mind-numbing. Have a bit of fun, remind teams of the intention of the retro, and work through their thoughts and feedback.
What other tips do you have for facilitating effective retros?