More Fun Retrospectives — Christmas Retro 🎄
The festive season is the perfect time to reflect on the year’s achievements.
For those that follow this blog, you’ll be aware that for some time now I’ve been trying to create a series of More Interesting Sprint Retrospectives. Retros which do not simply result in a three-column board consisting of What Went Well, What Didn’t Go So Well and What Could Be Improved (or some derivation of this).
It’s not that there’s anything wrong with these retrospectives per se, only that they tend to become tired very quickly and before long a team can fall into a pattern of rehashing the same old ideas each sprint whereas changing the format can encourage a team to approach the challenge in new & inventive ways.
The retro I’m covering this time is fairly concise, with a focus on reflecting not just on the most recent sprint but on the entire year.
The retro consists of four rounds, each posing a question to the team. Allow the team around two mins per question to write down their thoughts either onto physical post-it notes or virtual ones via a tool such as Miro.
Often participants tend to pick a different colour of post-it note for each individual — however, for this retro, I recommend asking the team to use a particular colour of post-it note for each round.
New Year’s Resolutions 📝
In the first round of this retro we pose the question:
What new things should we try or what should we do differently next year?
Post-it note colour: Green
Often, people equate the New Year with a fresh start which makes it a good time to think about changing up the things that haven’t necessarily worked so well for the team over the course of the year.
Sometimes it’s worth considering (for example) whether a process is being followed for good reason or simply because that’s the way things have always been? These are the kind of insights this round attempts to elicit from the team.
Santa’s List 🎅
This playful round asks:
What would you write to ask Santa for?
Post-it note colour: Pink
Are there better tools that might be used to achieve a common task within the team than those currently in place? The question is deliberately open-ended meaning that you’re likely to receive a wide variety of responses — some asking for the more tangible, whilst others may be of a conceptual nature.
Let’s Raise a Toast 🥂
Here’s to the things we achieved this year!
Post-it note colour: Yellow
I like this round because it provides an upbeat finish to the year and gives the team time to reflect on all that they have achieved, not just in the current sprint but over the course of the entire year. There’s also scope to give thanks to colleagues here. It’s important not just to think about what could have been done better but about all that was achieved so that the team can see just how far they have come.
This point in the retro, before the final round, is a good point in time to review the post-it notes that have been written so far and to discuss the thoughts therein. However, should you prefer, you can opt simply to review all of the notes at the end instead.
Actions ⏭
Now, having considered everything discussed in the previous rounds:
What actions should we take in the New Year?
Post-it note colour: Blue
The ultimate aim of each retro is not only to review and discuss as a team the challenges of each sprint and the potential ways in which you might improve, but to generate actions - tasks which will take longer to resolve than a conversation amongst the team within the confines of the retro.
This round allows the team to consider which of the post-it notes discussed in the previous rounds are within the team’s gift to change, and if they are, generate actions which can be taken as a result.
Wrapping Up 🎁
At the end of this retro hopefully, you’ll have:
- Discussed new approaches to established tasks which may have been overlooked because “that’s how they’ve always been done”.
- Considered the things that are lacking within the team and what can be done to address those gaps.
- Celebrated all the great things the team has achieved over the course of the sprint and the entire year.
- Of course, generated actions which can be carried forward into the New Year, allowing the team to continuously self-improve.
Slides used for this retrospective can be found here.
Important Consideration: Please be aware that not all members of your team may celebrate Christmas, in which case you should consider adapting this retro to be inclusive of those celebrating holidays such as Hannukah etc.
