3.4 Managing You

Agile Retrospectives — by Esther Derby, Diana Larsen (21 / 72)

👈 3.3 Managing Time | TOC | 3.5 Taking Your Skills to the Next Level 👉

In addition to managing activities, group dynamics, and time, you need to manage you.

Staying aware of all these team and interpersonal dynamics may seem overwhelming. The key to managing group dynamics is not technique (although it helps to have strategies) but in understanding and managing your own emotional state and responses. If you aren’t managing your own state, no technique or strategy will help. When emotions are high, your team needs someone to stay outside the turmoil. That someone is you, the retrospective leader.

If you feel your anxiety or tension rising, take a deep breath. Call a break if you need to do so. Your anxiety is a clue that you need to sort out what to do next to serve the group. Remember, you didn’t cause the emotions in the room, and you don’t have responsibility to make everything and everyone happy and nice.

During the break, take a moment to shake out your hands and feet to release tension and get your blood flowing again. Take three deep breaths. This may seem like superfluous advice; but when people are tense and anxious, it reduces blood flow to the brain… which reduces the ability to think clearly, which contributes to anxiety and tension. You see the picture. Oxygen to the brain is a good thing. It helps you think. Once your brain is oxygenated, ask yourself these…