Why hold a retrospective?
Teams need to hold retrospectives in order to continously improve. A retrospective will give your team a possibility to improve the way they work. This will enable the team to look forward and improve cooperation and also give the team a vent for frustrations. All this will help creating a more efficient team, who will deliver better products faster and hence retrospectives will return great value for the business.
You need to hold an online retrospective if your team cannot be assembled physically in one place or your team is a dstributed team, located in several locations.
Variations and stability
Recurring meetings like retrospectives, benefit from the regularity because the team knows what is to expect and what is expected from them. This enables the team to relax more and focus on getting value for the time spent. It also creates a secure and safe place that we can count on when the world changes around the team – and maybe even changes inside the team. It can be an important part of stability and balance for a team in unruly circumstances.
On the other hand doing the same thing may set us on autopilot. We may feel that we “know how do to this” and then get through the meeting like we always do. This understandable response to repetition can cause us to stop paying attention to what we actually experience. Another effect is that when we experience the same physical conditions we tend to remember the things we thought of last time we where in these physical conditions. Sitting in the same room, in front of the same computer, in the same chair, drinking the same beverage, talking to the same people and asking the same questions often causes us to think of the same problems and praises. This may be one reason that your team gets stuck in discussing the same topics. Another reason may be that not enough have been done to meet your teams needs!
In your team it may make sense to switch between games and easy retrospectives or it might make sense to switch between similar easy retrospectives. Even though some retrospectives are similar the slight variation can provoke new insights or motivate to another focus which can bring out new issues which can improve the team further.
The bridge between retrospectives and everyday work
It is an underestimated but essential task of the facilitator or scrum master to support what is discussed at retrospective meetings to improve everyday work. Methods include deciding what needs actions and what just needs to be aired, different kinds of follow-up, pointing out responsible team members for different actions, informing managers about relevant topics, this may influence and making discussed topics visible in the every day work.
You will have more likelihood of buy-in to new ideas and experiments, if this comes from team members instead of from you, the facilitator or scrum master.
Agile teams – if only…
If you only do one thing as a scrum master or facilitator in an agile team, make sure you hold regular and effective retrospectives. That makes sure the team improves on the most urgent topics.
Good luck.
Katrine and Jakob