How to get the most out of your Retrospective

Why is it important to find the right meeting format or activity when facilitating a retrospective.

A meeting format or an activity helps to start a dialog and to weave a conversation thread within the team. The questions that get asked during the meeting are like cues to shape the conversation. They gently nudge and make you think about aspects that might get lost in the chaos. That is the reason why selecting the right retrospective activity is important to get the most out of these meetings and to keep the conversation on track.

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As an intriguing Scrum Master, I keep on bookmarking retrospective activities that I find captivating. Later I deep dive and read multiple articles on the same format or topic and try to improvise it to fit the team I will be facilitating it for. Depending on the needs I design retrospective activities that suit the team. For example:

1. Since we are heading to the end of this year and planning for the upcoming year the Reflection Retrospective can be a great activity to be facilitated. This activity or the questions asked in this activity are designed to fit the needs of my team.
2. In case if there is lack of clarity about the Roles and Responsibilities within the team. Then the retrospective needs to be designed in a manner that help address the issue.
3. Avoiding repetitions and to retaining the surprise factor, as a facilitator you can use general creative Retrospective templates such as PAC-MAN or Hiking Retrospective.

While designing or selecting Retrospective activities things that a Scrum Master need to consider

• Mode of facilitation — Depending on the mode of facilitation whether the meeting is in-person, virtual or hybrid the type of activity or the facilitations technique needs to change. The facilitator also need to consider booking meeting rooms or using the right digital tools and infrastructure.
• The number of participants — Depending on the number of participants a facilitator needs to decide if group thinking or individual thinking should be incorporated in the activity. It also shapes the time boxing, based on the number of participants make sure to keep the time box optimum so that everyone gets equal speaking time.
• Being considerate — The facilitator also needs to be considerate about the participants needs such as giving timely breaks, making sure activities are designed in way that are not gender biased. Taking into consideration individual needs like pregnancy, autism, disability (differently-abled)

If you are a Scrum Master or a Facilitator and if you can think of other factors that would impact in designing or selecting activities for Retrospectives kindly comment and share your insights.

For more such engaging activities grab a copy of my book “ The Art Of Facilitation” — By Yamini Hundare. In this book I have shared meeting strategies, templates and activities that will help you facilitate team meeting, discussion or retrospectives.

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