How to Run a Retrospective With a Team (What I'll Do in 2023)

Retrospective is super useful to get a team to come together to talk about issues slowing the team down. I've facilitated hundreds of retrospectives and in this video, I talk about how I typically run one.
🔥
Are you new to running retrospectives? Do you want to short cut your learning and put your best foot forward when you run your next retrospective? If so, you will like my course "Effective Retrospectives Made Easy!"
(7 modules for only $47, that's less than $7 per module!)
Buy here ➡️ payhip.com/b/43Aal
🔥
Videos you might like
__________
What are retrospective meetings?
• What are retrospectives?
Step by Step Guide on How to Facilitate a Team Working Agreement
• How to facilitate a Te...
10 Lessons I Learned Being a Manager
• 10 Lessons I learned a...
What is Imposter Syndrome and What do you do?
• What is imposter syndr...
How to Feel Productive as a Manager
• Not Feeling Productive...
What to do When You’re Stressed Out
• What to do when you're...
How to Feel Confident Giving Feedback
• How to feel confident ...
How to have a 1-on-1 with your direct report
• 6 Ways to Improve Your...
Tired of New Year’s Resolutions? Do this instead.
• Tired of New Year's Re...
Gear I use and love
-----------
AUFO brand ear buds ➡️ amzn.to/3OnhkwE
[Super affordable so I have a couple around the house.
What I use everyday to listen to leadership and personal development podcasts, books, KZbin etc.]
Adjustable standup desk (top not included) ➡️ amzn.to/3Xhgeqq
Width and height adjustable. Comes in black or white.
A beautiful table top that could go with the desk ➡️ amzn.to/3TTyfYM
Webcam ➡️ amzn.to/3wXwr8p
Yeti mic ➡️ amzn.to/3wFvRfi
Books I’m reading now
-------------
3 Alarms ➡️ amzn.to/40btFJS
Practice of Groundedness ➡️ amzn.to/3HCMvCv
__________
COACHING. Want to know exactly what to do as a manager in a challenging situation? Work with me 1:1. Serious inquiries only. Check out the details and book a call here:
lingabson.com/schedule-a-call
__________
LingAbson.com
#ManagementTips #LingAbson #CoachLing #leadershipdevelopment #management

[@romanromanenco8902]

Great video, thank you

[@rodrigoalfaro7114]

Thank you!! You help me a lot.

[@Peacejusticenow]

Thank you!

[@elianafiorese3181]

Very informative....thanks so much !!

[@ghratkumar9489]

Great session indeed

[@margarcia6724]

Thanks for this! Super helpful ( I loved the post-it detail, by the way!)

[@coachling]

Thanks Mar! I'm glad it was super helpful for you!. :)

[@princesskerla4]

Best Retrospective video . Thank you

[@coachling]

Awww.... thanks so much!! 😀

[@mardouk1992]

Very on-point with no tangents. Great job.

[@coachling]

Thank you Mardouk!

[@GRMLYN]

This is great.

[@michaellelafontant4881]

Hello, Thank you a lot your Explanations are really helpful . Good Job!!!

[@coachling]

You're welcome! I'm glad it's helpful!

[@venkatramanms3891]

Hi ..Thank you for a nice session.. one question.. where to record or document the retrospective outcomes?

[@coachling]

You're welcome Venkatraman! You can do that in any document (Google Doc, Microsoft Word etc). And if your entire team is in-office, you can leave the retrospective outcomes written on large stick notes on the wall where the team sits so that every time they walk by, they are reminded of the actions from the last retrospective. I hope that helps.

[@ASD-go3dh]

hi Ling, this content is so helpful. Please help me. how do you summarize all the retrospective meetings? and what if the result of the voting is actually not a good idea? And what is suggestion for a website or an apps to use while online meeting to facilitate them in terms on voting so we could avoid anchoring idea? thank you very. hopefully you answer this :)

[@coachling]

Hi Atreiyu 👋 thank you for your questions! (1) I summarize my retros in Google docs. I don't copy over each idea but rather, summarize the top 3-5 most voted ideas under a category. Most importantly, the actions and owners of those actions are documented. (2) As for the result of the retro isn't a good idea - how would you know? If you have concerns about it during the retro, then you sound use probing questions so that the team can understand that though valid, the idea may not work. If an idea isn't great because the team tried it after the retro then a quick meeting together to figure out next steps/alternatives can work. (3) retrium is a great paid tool. I personally uses Google Jamboard and get each team member to use the brush tool to draw a circle or checkmark to vote. You can't really tell who is voting for what in jamboard doing it this way. I hope this helps! Thanks for checking out my video Atreiyu!

[@ASD-go3dh]

Ling Abson thank you very much for the inspiring answer 👏🏻

[@arunparthasarathy]

That was helpful Ling. A question : You said in next iteration, we can followup on ADD section items. Then what about the action items (the last column). Are they mean the same?

[@coachling]

Hi Arun, usually at the next retro, I would check in with the team on the status of their action items. If anything isn't complete, I would quickly ask the assignee when they think it would be completed to note down for the team/myself to follow up at the next retro. The Add column isn't the same. Add column is where the team has placed ideas they would like to add and those items may not necessarily have made it to the Action column (due to voting). If there were many items in the Add column in the previous retro, I sometimes will get the team to dot vot remaining Add column items, discuss and figure out what we need to action on. I hope that makes sense!

[@arunparthasarathy]

Thanks Ling, for your time. And that answered me well.

[@cutflow2]

You used the word anchoring twice here, how would you define that word ? So I can understand how it fits in your explanation. This is probably my 20-30th time watching this video. It’s better than most out there. Lol

[@coachling]

Hey! Thank you for watching 20 to 30 times! LOL. If I'm missing something and could answer your questions in a separate video, let me know. :) Anchoring in this context means sharing an idea before others had the chance to think through it inadventently influence their ideas. For example, say a team is estimating a task. Before everyone had decided the number of days it will take, someone prematurely called out "3 days". If that team has low psychological safety, it's likely the rest of the team will think it's 3 days as well because they may start to second-guess themselves. Not anchoring is a way to ensure the team does their thinking at the same time so that it will generate acccurate feedback on how a project went. I hope that makes sense! -Ling

[@cutflow2]

And nobodies names would be on these sticky notes correct ?

[@coachling]

It's up to the group. If it is a big group, names is helpful to recall who wrote what. If it's a group about 10, I don't usually ask them to write down their names as the participants remember what they wrote.

[@cutflow2]

1 is this only used by scrum teams ? 2 and the facilitator in this case would be the scrum master holding this meeting ? 3 does the PO attend this? What do they do during this?

[@coachling]

Hi there! 1 - can be used by scrum teams or non-scrum teams. 2 - Facilitator can be the scrum master, manager, lead or any team member. Unless there's low psy safety with this team then it's preferred to have a team member, scrum master or someone with no perceived direct authority to the team. 3 - I've seen PO attend this. If the retro topic is about project delivery then I usually encourage the PO to attend. They can be as an observer or participant. If the retro topic is technical, for example, how to handle tech debts then PO likely won't need to attend. I hope this helps!

[@cutflow2]

@@coachling 1. How will the PO know if it will be a technical meeting or not to then determine whether he should attend 2. Does this also apply to the scrum master? Seeing as the SM Doesnt need to have a technical background

[@ghratkumar9489]

Please do estimation video

[@coachling]

Hi Ghrat, what's most challenging when doing estimation? Curious.

[@cutflow2]

Is there anyway you can redo this video with actual examples of what the team has voted to keep, drop or add. It almost sounds like you can provide fresh content after every retrospective meeting that you hold so we would be able to see real world examples which would be very beneficial to my learning. I’ll take real world examples over theory any time. :)

[@coachling]

That's a lovely idea however, I'm not running retrospectives anymore as I focus more on leadership coaching. As well, even if I did, the content of the retrospectives is private to the group so I won't be able to share it without their permission. I find the best learning is to run a session with a team. Imperfection is perfection. Good luck!