Complete Agenda for a Program-level Retrospective
This is an agenda for a retrospective that I designed to assess the health of a long-term engagement when working with a client.
You can easily substitute the word “client” in the agenda with “program” or “team” or whatever is appropriate for the group you are working with.
Objective
Reflect openly and honestly on significant events over the course of the multi-year relationship with the client, arrive at a group understanding of lessons learned, and identify executable Action Items that can help us improve during subsequent engagements with this and other clients.
Pre-Meeting
- Write the agenda on a white board/flip chart (Note that all materials except the agenda should be hidden at the start of the session, and revealed when the time comes to work on them)
- Write the proposed ground rules on a white board/flip chart
- Write the “Three D’s” (see below) on a white board/flip chart
- Write the questions associated with the six hats activity on a white board/flip chart
- Write the questions associated with the good-bad-better-best activity on a white board/flip chart
- Prepare a timeline on the white board (or flip chart paper taped together)
- Ensure you have a good supply of sticky notes/notecards and markers/pens (markers are preferred because it’s easier to read from a distance)
- Set up the chairs in a U shape, with the facilitator’s chair at the top of the U
Meeting Agenda
1. Set the Stage (20 minutes) [primary activity — six thinking hats]
Set the tone for the retrospective session: Thank everyone for attending, then ask the group’s permission to abide by the following ground rules:
- One person speaks at a time (the person holding the ball)
- No electronics
- Remind the attendees to think about the three D’s as they share their thoughts — and to be mindful of which of the three D’s they are practicing as they speak:
- Dialogue — listening with an open spirit.
- Debate — listening to win an argument — a verbal “fight.”
- Discuss — listening to break apart an issue and help the group move toward a winning idea.
— Briefly summarize the remaining steps of the agenda
— Ask each member of the group to “put on a hat” to answer a question which corresponds with a hat color, where:
Hat color | Question
White hat (fact-based) | What are some key facts and figures about our relationship with the client?
Green hat (creative) | What was different about our engagement with this client than with other clients?
Yellow hat (positive) | What are examples of positive outcomes from our engagement with this client?
Red hat (emotive) | What bothers you about our engagement with this client?
Black hat (devil’s advocate/contrarian) | What would you do differently when working with this client if you had it to do over again?
Blue hat (organizational) | What key learnings do you think we can take away from our experiences with this client?
Thank the group members for their inputs. Introduce the next part of the retro.
2. Gather Data (30 minutes) [primary activity — good –bad — better –best]
Start the discussion like this: You’re stranded alone on a desert island. You find that one activity which helps ease your boredom is doodling in the sand. Eventually you begin to run out of things to draw, and you find yourself thinking about your work life, and your experiences working with this client come to mind. To amuse yourself, you start to write down things that you remember about your interactions with this client. To simulate writing in the sand, write down on note cards/sticky notes as many ways that you can think of to complete the following four statements:
“Working with this client was good because …” [GOOD] — (green cards/sticky’s)“
Working with this client was bad because …” [BAD] — (red cards/sticky’s)
“Working with this client could have been better if …” [BETTER] — (yellow cards/sticky’s) —
“Working with this client gave us a chance to do some of our best work, such as …” [BEST] — (purple cards/sticky’s)
Note: Request that everyone write at least one card for each type.
When everyone has completed their cards/sticky’s, have each person read one of their cards and place the card along the timeline in the place where they think it best fits. Continue doing this until everyone has read their cards and placed them on the timeline.
3. Generate Insights (20 minutes) [primary activity: timeline]
- Have the group stand up and assemble in front of the timeline.
- Invite the group to reflect on what they see on the timeline, for instance, clusters of cards/sticky’s of a particular type.
- Invite the group to call out events of particular significance and mark those on the timeline. — At the bottom of the timeline, ask each member of the group, one at a time, to draw an “emotions seismograph,” by drawing a line which plots how positive or negative they were feeling across time, over the life of the engagement, between the extremes of feeling good (smiley face) to feeling bad (sad face). [Each person will draw their line in a different color]
4. Decide What to Do (15 minutes) [primary activity: 100 dollar test]
- Have the group split into pairs (or triads, as necessary, if not an even number of people)
- Ask each pair/triad to reflect on what has been discussed and come up with a list of specific actions that can be taken
- Use a World Café approach to have the pairs/triads read what the others have come up with
— Check for duplicates and then write the list of specific actions in a list that looks like this:
ACTION $$
<action> <bid> <action> <bid>
- Each member of the group gets $100 of virtual money. They can bid all of their money on a single action, or they can distribute it cross multiple actions. Minimum bid is 5 dollars. Have each member of the group write their bids.
- Sum the numbers for each action. Choose to the top five actions. Assign owners to each action.
5. Closure (5 minutes)
- Restate the desired meeting outcome and how you have achieved it.
- Go over the Action Items and ensure they have been assigned to a specific person
- Talk about how/where the group will “radiate” Action Items and any other information deemed important from the retrospective
- Close the retrospective
