Retrospectives are crucial when building any team. They allow you to reflect on your time together as a team and learn from it. But they often go over the time limit and turn into arguing; to stop this from happening, we recommend a different approach than the regular “Start doing, stop doing, continue doing.”.
Preparation needed for any successful retrospective
You must set the scene — tell your team that you have scheduled a retrospective and expect them to take 30 minutes before the meeting to put their thoughts on paper. Ask them to think about each team member individually, the whole team, and the processes you have inside the team. Encourage people to highlight positive experiences and remind them not to blame others; instead, share how their actions made them feel.
The format of the meeting
We prefer to split retrospectives into four different parts.
Housekeeping
At the start of the meeting, explain to everyone how the meeting will go. Give everyone a piece of paper and a pen to take notes.
Listening to each other
This part focuses on listening to each other. You go through each team member and ask them to share their insights — they are the only ones speaking, and everyone else listens.
The person speaking shares what they loved about working with each team member and what they could do differently. They talk about how they saw the team and the processes, what worked for them, and what did not.
The people not talking can use this time to make notes about things they would like to discuss.
Discussing what they heard
Once everyone has had a chance to speak, it’s time to discuss. People can review their notes and respond to what they heard — to clarify, understand, and share their views.
This part of the meeting will be the loudest. Some people are more vocal and want to discuss more in-depth, but it’s your job as the leader to make sure the less vocal ones are also heard. Divert the conversation away from the more vocal ones by asking the less vocal ones questions like “What are your thoughts on this?”
You do not have to go around each person and ask their thoughts on the subject, but you have to create space in the conversation for the less vocal ones to chip in.
P.S. Be mindful of time, don’t let this part drag on too long. If a topic takes away too much of the time, state that it won’t be resolved in this discussion and ask if someone wants to lead fixing this outside the meeting.
Sanity check
In the final round, ask each individual if they have anything they want to add or discuss. This makes sure everyone has had a chance to speak up. Once a team feels more comfortable with retros and the format, you will probably start getting “No” answers, but it’s still good practice to ask this question.
That’s it!
This retrospective format works for teams in different stages of development. This format works for you even if you just got together or have been working together for three years. Try it out, and let me know how it goes!
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