Want to look back and learn from your team’s successes and failures? The goal is to look back and reflect on what’s gone well and what hasn’t – and what can be done about it. The Retrospective recipe is a curated set of five Workshop Tactics that is a staple of productive teams.
🧠 Learn how to…
✔️ prioritise your team’s feelings, streamline your activities or provide constructive feedback (depending on your current needs)
✔️ facilitate a discussion
✔️ create an actionable to-do list from the discussion
🃏 Cards used…
⏱ How much time?…
- Over multiple days: one to three short sessions.
- On one day: 1.5 hours session and 1 hour session with a longer break in the middle.
📚 Before you start…
In person
- Prepare (book room, invite people, write and share agenda)
- Materials (whiteboard, sticky notes, pens)
- Tech check (charger, adapter, screen projector)
- Room (refreshments, temperature, chairs, wall space)
Hybrid
- Prepare (book room, send call link, invite people, write and share agenda)
- Materials (whiteboard, sticky notes, pens, Miro board)
- Tech check (charger, adapter, screen projector)
- Room (refreshments, temperature, chairs, wall space)
Online
- Prepare (invite people, write and share agenda, create and send call invite)
- Materials (Miro board)
- Tech check (charger, adapter, Microphone/headphones)
✨ Extra reading…
- Read about your role as a Facilitator
- Prepare an Icebreakers
- Invite the right Stakeholders
👀 Let’s walk through this recipe using an example: a team of educators and administration at an International Elementary School, reflecting on the past school year.
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Choose a retrospective format
Choose a retrospective format
In order to figure out which one of the three retrospectives to use, read the summary below or click to go straight to the instructions to figure out which works best for what your team needs.
⭐️ Once you have completed your chosen retrospective, then go to the next tactic: Democratic Discussion.
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Mad, Sad, Glad Retro
Focus on how the team is feeling.
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Three Little Pigs Retro
Focus on how robust aspects of the team or project are.
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Start, Stop, Continue Retro
Focus on action-based constructive feedback.
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Use Mad, Sad, Glad to focus on feelings
Use Mad, Sad, Glad to focus on feelings
⏱Time: 1 hour
🧠 Core Objective: focus on how the team is feeling.
The Mad, Sad, Glad tactic gives you a sense of your team’s feelings towards a current or previous project. This tool will help you each understand your teammates’ emotions at any given time and work together more effectively as a group. Creating a safe space to air emotions is an important aspect of building trust in a team.
💡 Tip: Before you start with Step one, focus you team: tell your team you want their feedback on (state your specific topic)
Instructions
- Since this is the start of your overall workshop, make sure to start with an icebreaker to warm everyone up.
- Draw three columns on a large surface: (3 minutes)
- Ask each person to write down what they are mad, sad, or glad about (relating to the time period of project in question) on sticky notes. (5 minutes)
- Have each person post their sticky notes in the ‘Mad’ column. Theme Sort as you go. (10 minutes)
- Repeat the process rom Step 2 and 3 for the ‘Sad’ and ‘Glad’ columns. (20 minutes)
- Set aside time for discussion at the end of the meeting to reflect on all input and add any new topics that come up. (15 minutes)
- Use Secret Vote to prioritise the top three things to action. (5 minutes)
Now you have completed this retrospective, go to the next tactic: Democratic Discussion.
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Use Three Little Pigs to focus on the robustness of the project
Use Three Little Pigs to focus on the robustness of the project
⏱ Time: 55 mins
🧠 Core Objective: focus on how robust aspects of the team or project are.
The Three Little Pigs tactic helps you reflect on what’s going well on your project, and what could be improved. With the help of a childhood fable you will frame the discussion through a lens of stability, without all of the unhelpful huffing and puffing you might find in a reflective meeting. This process highlights the problems that need to be solved, while celebrating what’s going well.
💡 Tip: Before you start with Step one, focus you team: tell your team you want their feedback on (state your specific topic)
Instructions
- Since this is the start of your overall workshop, make sure to start with an icebreaker to warm everyone up.
- Create three columns on a large surface: (3 minutes)
- Explain the story of the Three Little Pigs to the group, if necessary. (2 minutes)
- Ask each person to write down what aspects of their project, team, or work-related items are ‘made of straw’ (weak or could fall apart easily) one per sticky note. (4 minutes)
- Have each person post their sticky notes in the ‘Made of Straw’ column. Theme Sort as you go. (6 minutes)
- Repeat the process from Step 2 and 3 for the ‘Made of Sticks’ (somewhat rigid, medium risk) and ‘Made of Stone’ (Immovable, low risk) columns. (20 minutes)
- Set aside time for discussion at the end of the meeting to reflect on all input. Use Secret Vote to prioritise the top three things to action. (20 minutes)
Now you have completed this retrospective, go to the next tactic: Democratic Discussion.
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Use Start, Stop, Continue to get actionable feedback
Use Start, Stop, Continue to get actionable feedback
⏱Time: 1 hour
🧠 Core Objective: focus on action-based, constructive feedback.
The Start, Stop, Continue tactic is a great way to get balanced, actionable feedback on a topic, project or team. This tactic provides a productive way to encourage a group to optimise and improve a situation with clear actions. It can be used midway through a project, or at the end, and can also be used for giving personal feedback.
💡 Tip: Before you start with Step one, focus you team: tell your team you want their feedback on (state your specific topic).
Instructions
- Since this is the start of your overall workshop, make sure to start with an icebreaker to warm everyone up.
- Create three columns on a large surface: (3 minutes)
- Ask each person to write down what the team should ‘Start’ doing on sticky notes (4 minutes)
- Have each person post their sticky notes in the ‘Start’ column. (6 minutes)
- Repeat the process from Step 2 and 3 for the ‘Stop’ and ‘Continue’ columns. (20 minutes)
- Theme Sort as you go. (5 minutes)
- Set aside time for discussion at the end of the meeting to reflect on all input. (20 minutes)
- Use Secret Vote to prioritise the top three things to action. (5 minutes)
Now you have completed this retrospective, go to the next tactic: Democratic Discussion.
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Use Democratic Discussion to focus on the most popular points
Use Democratic Discussion to focus on the most popular points
⏱ Time: 50 mins
🧠 Core Objective: facilitate a discussion that doesn’t lose track of each of the most popular points raised.
The Democratic Discussion tactic creates a discussion agenda with your participants in order to keep track of what’s been discussed, and what needs to be discussed. Giving everyone a say in what will be discussed helps to include a wider range of topics, so everyone will be invested in the meeting. The discussions are prioritised so you can make sure you talk about the most important things first.
💡 Tip: for a big group, combine this tactic with Fishbowl.
Instructions
- Create three columns on a large surface: (2 minutes)
- Put the items you prioritised during your retrospective session from the tactic before in ‘to Discuss’. (5 minutes)
- Use Secret Vote to decide which topics to discuss first. (5 minutes)
- Arrange the ‘To Discuss’ sticky notes in descending order of votes they received. (3 minutes)
- Set a 10-minute timer and start the discussion of the highest voted topic. Record down any actions that come up as you go. (10 minutes)
- Decide as a group whether to move on to the next topic or to continue the discussion for another 10 minutes when you reach the time limit. (10-30 minutes)
For the next tactic, organise your actionable outcomes from the discussions for Who, What, When. (2 minutes)
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Use Who, What, When to create an actionable to-do list
Use Who, What, When to create an actionable to-do list
⏱ Time: 20 mins
🧠 Core Objective: to make the retro worthwhile, create an actionable to-do list from the discussion.
The Who, What, When tactic is great for ensuring you leave your meeting with a clear plan of goals and deadlines. One of the most important things you can do is leave the room knowing who’s committed to what, and by when. Using this tactic to encourage the group to define their own actions and deadlines is the meeting cheat-code you need.
Instructions
- Create three columns on a large surface: (2 minutes)
- Start with ‘Who’ column, write down the participants. (2 minutes)
- Ask each participant for specific steps they can commit to and write them in the ‘What’ column. Ensure all the actions from your Democratic Discussion are included in the ‘What’ column. (10 minutes)
Fun fact: people are more likely to commit to actions when they are declared in front of a group. - For each row, ask that person for a specific date and time they will have that item completed by and write it in the ‘When’ column. Avoid using vague timeframes like ‘next week’. (2 minutes)
- Encourage those who have not contributed yet to come up with an action, or assist another person if there is a lot to do. (2 minutes)
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What next?
What next?
Congratulations, you have completed your Retrospective! You have looked back on your success and failures, discussed the most important features and now have a set of allocated actions that will help you improve for next time.
Now you’ve reflected back on your project, you’re ready for your next Project Kick-off.
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