Retro is always in fashion!
When I’m referencing Retro I’m not talking about flared trousers, tie-dye and the recent resurgence of Y2K fashion. What I’m actually talking about is making space and time to reflect on your work by having a Retrospective meeting, which is also known as a Retro.
Internally at Sport England we talk about things that change and improve our culture, Retros being one of them. But what does it mean to have a Retrospective meeting? Below is how we talk about Retros in Sport England
As a part of Sport England’s Innovation & Digital team we try to prioritise learning which means that retros have become a regular feature of our ways of working amongst ourselves and also the partners we work with. In fact, it’s a core component of one of our Team Principles:
“We value the learnings… This means that we will actively give space to reflect and think not only on the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ but also about how we can practically implement changes based on what we’ve learnt. We will also take up opportunities to share with others what we are learning”
Our Retro in action (or the runway)
We are at the halfway point of the B2022 Innovation & Digital Accelerator and 4 months since the end of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. A couple of weeks ago CAST and Sport England held a Retrospective to look back at what had happened so far, particularly focusing on what we could learn and build on.
This retro brought together a mix of people from both CAST, Sport England and other stakeholders involved in delivering the Accelerator. This helped us get a well-rounded perspective from those on the ground to those who are mainly kept informed.
The main question we set out to answer was ‘What do we know about supporting NGBs to develop their capability in digital and innovation?’ Before we set off on reflecting we felt it important to set out some principles and remind ourselves of the prime objective of the project:
● It was important that we were able to be critical and ambitious and I feel this was only achieved through the trusting relationship that we have with CAST that we’re able to freely talk about success and #FAILs in a safe environment
● Don’t make it personal — we act as one team whilst we may be from two separate organisations we’re all working towards one goal and therefore successes and failures are owned as a group
● Finally this great quote helped to remind us of this “Regardless of what we discover, we must understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what was known at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.”
In this Retro we did a mix of individual and group discussion focusing on what went well, areas to improve and next steps. The themes that came out of this identified we need to:
1. Be consistent and align our communications with NGBs
One of the biggest barriers to progress was the capacity and headspace needed for NGBs to focus on innovation and digital development, to set them up long term to succeed. This was understandable during the Commonwealth Games itself when an NGB’s attention and resources was focused on the Games. However, there can be a reliance on a project lead to maintain momentum, adapt and change, which can be a single point of failure for the project. As a result, we’ll be creating a bi-weekly or monthly digest of all key information, events and requests as part of an approach to align communications
2. Openly share progress
We found that it’s often hard to easily get a snapshot of the overall progress of each project. We also haven’t seen as much uptake of collaborative working between NGBs even though that’s something that they expressed that they wanted to do more. We think that helping NGBs to see more easily what others are working on may encourage them to work closer together. We also believe it’s important that this knowledge isn’t held within the heads of NGBs, CAST and Sport England, hence our focus put on working in the open. As a result we took all the data that we have based on CAST’s many touch points with the NGBs to show participation data, progress, reflections and learning into an easy access dashboard. This data is captured to ensure we can provide best support to the NGBs but it can also provide a viewpoint that helps NGBs, Sport England and CAST to spot new opportunities for support and collaboration
3. Hold retro and reflections with NGBs themselves
Retros are incredibly useful in reflecting on what’s worked, what hasn’t and how we can work together to create better outcomes. While we have completed this initial project team retro, we want to help each NGBs go through a similar process so they can create an open and honest environment for all involved in the Accelerator.
4. Build deeper capacity within the sector
We need to think more about how to build capacity and work with system partners and senior leadership to explore how we can build better digital and innovation capacity within the sector. Starting with roundtable or creative events, we’ll work to design ways that Sport England (and others) can support NGBs with this important capacity, including how we can strengthen the links between NGBs through open working, reuse and shared service layers.
5. Continue to provide flexible support
We acknowledged that we need to continue to respond to the needs and context of NGBs to provide tailored support that helps them make best use of digital, data and design. By continuing to sense changes in their work, environment and needs, we’ll respond with targeted support that best fits their needs. This ‘sense and respond’ approach means we can be targeted to each NGB whilst always looking for opportunities to share and align with others.
As you can see by allowing time for reflection and discussion you end up with a wealth of insight into the workings of a project and can help you to collectively solve problems and generate solutions or ideas. What’s even more important is that a Retro is a collective effort: it takes the whole group to design, participate and build on actions that come out of it. It helps to build collective accountability
So how can you hop on this trend?
Whether you’re all about cosy knits, baggy fits or you just plonk on whatever is in your wardrobe, Retros are useful for everyone, at any stage of a project and it’s definitely not a fad. Here are some of my top tips and some useful links
- Set some questions in advance to provoke thinking, they don’t need to be complex you can start with
- What went well?
- What didn’t go so well?
- What could we do better next time?
2. Don’t reinvent the wheel; use already existing templates,
- https://www.funretrospectives.com/category/retrospective/
- https://toolbox.hyperisland.com/team-retrospective
- https://miro.com/templates/ (For any Miro enthusiasts)
3. Set the tone at the start as to how you mean to go on, it’s important to create an open and safe space from the outset
4. If possible, use an independent third-party facilitator as it allows everyone to fully participate to get varied perspectives
The time of year is apt to be thinking about reflection as we look back on the last 12 months (and what a 12 months it’s been) but I’m hoping I’ve inspired you to think about implementing Retros in your work in the New Year. Please do share your own experience or participating, facilitating in Retros or even if you have any questions.
