'Science' of making Teams effective lies in 'Art' of Retrospective

“What is the Retrospective and what do we do in this?” My team asked.
“Apne Girebaan mein jhaankna” – I replied in regional language. Lot of laughs in the room. I said, this Laugh & Pleasant Environment are the most desirable outcomes of Retrospective Meeting. Discussion continued..

To start our discussion on Retrospective Meeting (RM), I’ll highlight few facts first: -

• RM is Scrum Event mentioned in Scrum Guide
• In recent state-of-agile report, this is 2nd most used practice (81%) by the teams
• Importantly, scrum guide says, RM can be used to improve processes & practices to make it more Enjoyable & Effective for next sprint (and did not mention maximize output, increase productivity etc). 

RM is subjective discussion in which Team travel in past & analyse the experience. They make effort to make this experience more enjoyable & effective in the upcoming sprints. But why is RM so popular & widely adopted today?

To understand this, let's see history of society-

1. Late 18th Century, the world witnessed the Industrial Revolution. Many Industries setup & getting revenue & development was the main goal. In that duration, Bonded Labor became the inseparable virtue of industrial revolution. Since poverty, malnutrition, diseases were widespread in the society, people even accepted the form of bonded labor to earn food.
2. Second stage started in later half of 20th century & that was the Information Revolution. The societies around the world improved & people questioned bonded labor. Now Information became the weapon. Organizations & people were hungrier for information. However, people were not objecting the oppressiveness at their workplace.
3. 3rd and current phase - 21st century & that is Social & Psychological Revolution. Today in the Internet Age, the Information is not hidden. But people are more conscious about their social & self-respect, psychological safety, workplace rights, work-life balance & right to choose how they want to operate.

Embracing change is Agile. We have seen drastic change in people psychology since 18th century. It is necessary to make efforts so that these social & psychological needs can be taken care of and humanity-factor is not extinct at workplace. RM gives the opportunity to Teams to talk in these dimensions and perhaps one of the most used practice. But do you think it is a simple discussion where team Inspect the past, Analyse the improvements, and Experiments and Adapt the new way of working?

Unfortunately RM is the event which has most anti-patterns, like:

1. Only 1 or 2 persons speak
2. People feel like prisoner
3. Team suggest skipping retro for one sprint
4. Only Blaming, no productive discussion
5. Psychological insecurities in highlighting issues,

and therefore SM should know the art of facilitating RM. Being an Agile Enabler, it is subject of continuous learning for all of us how to blur these anti-patterns and make retrospective more effective.

Facilitating Retrospective Meeting

During my journey of being an Agile Enabler, I have performed number of experiments to facilitate 'effective' retrospective. But it is obvious that one method which works well for one team, can be disaster for another. Since every team has unique people, psychologies, challenges & strength, the way of discussing the things will be quite different. Still, there are few methods which I found effective with most of the team and I am sharing here with all of you.   

1. Initiate RM (Ice-breaker) 

When all members are present for RM, I initiate with defining sprint in “One” word from one theme. Few Theme:

• Food: (Chosen words – Bitter Gourd, Milk, Fruit-Juice)
• Holiday Destination: (Chosen words – France, Australia, Sahara Desert, Syria, Taliban)
• Railway: (Chosen words – Rajdhani, Unreserved Coach, Train cancelled, Bullet)
• More....

When members chose these words & gave their reasons, in first 5-10 minutes we actually have good idea in which direction our RM will go and what are the points should be discussed.

2. Chose RM Theme

Every RM meeting has one specific agenda i.e. what can we change in our process so that it might be more enjoyable & effective. And it comes in form of ‘went well’, ‘improve’, ‘Action Item’.
But if we just discuss this, it will be monotonous, boring & might not be effective. Based on my research & experience, I used below:

Mythology Theme

• Brahma (To introduce), Vishnu (Continuity), Mahesh (Destroyer/Stop)
• Boon – Appreciation, Positive
• Bane – Problem, Improvement, what held us back

Cuisine Theme

• Junk Food (Stop), Fruits (Continuity), Seasonal Veg (To introduce)
• Water – Positive and appreciation
• Overeating – Problem, Improvement, why unable to operate

Other Themes like

• Weather (Cloud, Rain, Sun)
• 3L (Like, Learn, Lack)
• Satisfaction (Mad, Sad, Glad)
• KALM (Keep, Add, More Less)
• And more..

3. Facilitation Techniques

We decided themes but I, as SM, will adopt different way of RM facilitation so that I can make people to think more creatively and identify the core areas to discuss. Below are few facilitation techniques which I adopted:

1. 1,2 ka 4 (or 1,2,4) – It is done in 3 rounds. First every member writes 3 improvement separately. In second round, team of 2 people formed and they need to come up with 3 most critical issues out of their combined 6. And so on. It highlights the most critical issues as team assign ranks.
2. Hot Air Balloon – Air balloon rises because of hot air. But excessive sandbags may hold it back. Our team is Balloon. In defined timebox, we identify Hot-airs and Sandbags separately and discuss collectively.
   
3. Sailboat – This is a kind of scenery in which boat (team) need to reach an island (goal) but there are some anchors (impediments) which are holding boat back and some rocks and stones (risks). Team identify each in based on previous sprint.
   
4. Outings – Occasionally, we go out for Retrospective-on-Lunch. This is simple discussion but during lunch.

4. My Favorite Facilitation Initiatives

Few techniques are my favorite and every time, no matter how many times repeated even with the same team, these hit the core. Below:

1. 2 Truth ~ 1 Lie – Every member needs to write 2 Truth and 1 Lie on sticky notes in a timebox. Once timebox is over, each member take chance and reveal his truths and lie. Other members need to identify which is truths and which is lie. It highlights the area where members are not on same page. It is very helpful in identifying the dysfunctions in the team.   
2. Story Cube – 
   
   I arranged the story cubes. Every member needs to pick one cube and throw it on the table. Figure which will be on top surface, need to be described with Sprint happenings by the member. This technique can highlight the issues which traditional RM might not. E.g. – 

• One member got the ‘Snake’ figure and I was amazed by his reasoning. He said “The snakes are very stubborn. I try hard to throw these away from my house, but they are back. I can say these are like “Bugs” in our system, we try hard to resolve but these are back because we are not targeting Technical Debt and applying patches on few places. 
• Another member got figure in which someone was lifting the weight. S/he said this is “XYZ” in our team who really do most of the work. In our team, work is not equally divided.

These are few examples what this technique delivered but I never got these points highlighted through other techniques.

Conclusion

The RM is one event in which anyone can apply any creativity to make team to think in 360 degree. The objective is to inspect & discuss the stuff in productive & healthy environment. And, this can’t be done without Trust. If we see Maslow’s hierarchy of need where Psychological needs are at bottom or  5 Dysfunction of Team by Lencioni where Trust is at bottom, we shall understand how much necessary are these to take care to build a effective & happy team.

Therefore, to build trust and protect members psychology, we have a mandatory practice for everyone to highlight:

Heard – I appreciate that I was heard at.. or I believe I could have been heard at..

Seen – I appreciate that I was seen at.. or I believe I could have been seen at..

Respected – I appreciate that I was respected at.. or I believe I could have been respected at..

Last but not the least - Mostly teams discuss the appreciation in RM. But we are one of very rare teams who believe in Confessions also. Any member can confess anything not done correctly or ethically by him/her in the sprint. Believe me this is very tough to confess in front of team & that is the starting of building trust. I led my team by examples & I still remember my first confession made 4 years back:

“I confess during the sprint I lose my temper and used some words which I should not. I promise my team that I’ll improve my capability to handle the situations & try to maintain my temper.”

Lastly, I remember someone saying correctly –
 “A sprint closed without a effective retrospective is as good as a surgery finished without the stitches”

Journey is more beautiful than destination. So is Agile Adoption Journey!

“…Congratulations! Management is ready to adopt Agile. Soon, we shall be an Agile Team. We'll adopt Agile way of work, stop traditional practices & become a high performing team …”

These talks from a team is quite exciting as they are about to start Agile Adoption Journey. But, is it really that simple as it sounds? Is this change quite linear? Is there any challenge to achieve this change?

I believe, CHANGE always comes from CHALLENGE; Only need is to attack the core of CHALLENGE i.e. LLE. The same is true with Agile Journey also.

I, as a SM, helped my team in their Agile journey in these 3 steps below:
L – Losing
L – Love
E – Educate

Step -1: Let Team realize what they are ‘Losing’ now

Until team understands what they are losing now & why Agile needed, the adoption will not be taken seriously and the efforts may not come from bottom of the heart. So firstly i'll discuss the current problems & possible reason of it. In past, I did this by having sessions. Mostly teams had problems like:

1. Missing continuous & timely deliveries – mainly due to either under-estimating the work or scope change during the development.
2. Pressure to make changes in the product – Stakeholder wants the changes in the product at the later stage of development which is difficult.
3. Unresolved dependencies & no coordination with stakeholders – The questions raised to stakeholders, remain unanswered for long time & team is not able to work which results in delay.
4. Fear in releasing the product – Product will work or not in customer’s environment? Release is done at very later stage.
5. Stakeholders never satisfied – Interesting point. They said it does not matter how big efforts we make, we get criticism & dissatisfaction only.
6. No time to learn new technologies – Deadline are so narrow that they never get time to explore new technologies & way of doing things.
7. Lack of Transparency – From top to bottom, everyone had this feeling with each other. No one knows how anyone else is adding value to the product.
8. Being treated like Machines & Psychological unsafe environment – We don’t have “our” time. Questioning on why this much time is required to do particular task. No leave can be availed due to deadlines. Due to unnecessary questioning & conflict, people stopped even putting their points. They just follow commands.

By discussing these problems, I earned a personal touch from team like there is someone who understand their issues. Also gave them a ray of hope that these issues can be solved. The objective of first step was to win the trust of team that someone is there to protect them which I did.
Here we should also understand that SM is an enabler. It is the team who will make efforts to bring the change & it can be done only when team has reason, hope & willingness to do so.
  

Step -2: Make people ‘Love’ Agile

The second step is to let Team know how Agile can solve these problems. But if we just reiterate  Manifesto & Principles, people might lose interest & find it bookish. We need to present agile in a way that they may correlate it with their problems. Personally, I wanted them to Love Agile & so I took below initiatives:

A) Use Interesting Examples:

• Bollywood - Took example how bollywood embraced change & showed what is happening in society & what society wants:
• 1910s – first movie “Raja Harishchandra”
• 1950-60s – Landlord related movies - MotherIndia, Do Ankhe Barah Hath
• 1960-80s – Unemployment, Poverty - Angry Young Man movies
• 1990-2000 – LPG -We started thinking liberally & experienced generation gap (love stories & parent objections kind of movies).
• 2000s - Corporate culture, dis-satisfaction in the society -  Page-3, Life in a Metro
• 2010s - WebSeries with much bolder content because it is the need of time. 

• Demonetisation – One night, Demonetisation (Nov’16) was announced. Country saw currency issues for few months. If I was developing my ecommerce website with Indian culture of cash-on-delivery option, I might not be able to have business at that time. In Agile, I can add other payment options in my website whenever I want. Showed how Paytm blossom during this time.

• http://www.scrumyourwedding.com/ – wedding-planners using scrum.

• Mythology – Took Incarnations example. How the complexity in world increase and incarnations become more & more superior to tackle the situation.

• Comparisons – Orkut vs FB, BB vs Samsung, Kodak vs Nikon – Why One see growth & other      closed?  

B) Concept clarity by Games & Story Telling:

• Flip Coin Game – light weight game to demonstrate iterative delivery concept.

• Calligraphy Game – game to focus on completing the things.

• Ham-n-eggs - Story to showcase difference between involvement & commitment and relation to Agile Teams

• Water Journey from Underground to Glass (Different Analogies)
• Groundwater = Product Backlog,
• Tank on roof = Sprint Scope
• Filtered Water in RO = Increment
• If we take water in glass = Deployed to customer.
• I highlighted, if ground water is not available, we might not have drinking water. Same way, if product backlog is not maintained, it will directly impact the delivery.        

• ​​​​​​​And many more...

C) Touching the Nerves:

Above #A & #B helped team to understand soul of Agile & by now they started talking Agile. Now, it was the time to showcase how Agile can solve their problems which we discussed in “Losing” section. We had many QnA sessions on how Agile Way can help us, like:

• Maintain Transparency by Having a Kanban board and see the journey of product 
• Release Schedule practice will help in Continuous & timely deliveries. Eventually, we achieved this.
• Highlight how can we facilitate changes in the product. Showcase the importance of scrum events (Planning & Review), refinement meetings.
• How Agile Practices focus on Coordination & collaboration with stakeholder. It is easier to resolve the dependencies.
• Explained that Stakeholders are not satisfied because they don’t get what they need even if the product follows the signed contract. The reason is, expectations change with the time and so we need changes in our product.
• I personally felt that, Most of the members complaint regarding estimates. They do not get required time to do their task or they are asked to cut-down the estimates. I made them understand Estimates, Velocity, story point in a very interesting story-telling way.
• Finally, when we discussed Scrum Values, it was like last nail in coffin. It motivated team towards Agile & Team looked confident, hopeful and dedicated to Agile after these discussion.

Step -3: ‘Educate’ people to Execute

Now, last step is educating & helping team to implement practices. It is Bi-Dimensional approach which focuses on – Doing Agile (adopt practices) & Being Agile (change mindset by cultivating values & principles).
I believe we can’t avoid any of it. ‘Doing’ is important to maintain the Deliveries & RoI and ‘Being’ is important to transform the culture & mindset of team. Our Agile Adoption efforts included both. I trained, coach & teach my teams on these by organizing dedicated interactive sessions.

• Doing Agile Workshops - Explain Framework, Events, Role & Responsibilities, best practices in detail.  
• Being Agile Workshops - Explain Scrum Values, Principles, Empiricism, Transparency, Psychological Safety, Transforming the culture and Earning Trust.
  
• Setup Agile CoE & CoP - Setup dedicated environment & spaces where people can Talk Agile, Practice Agile, Discuss their problems and Learn.    
• Agile Maturity Assessment -  Prepare Agile Maturity Assessment which can be taken on regular basis & highlight the improvement areas in the team. 

  
Below are few of my Articles which focus on certain Agile Practices. I explained the core of these to Team in workshops:  

·       TUFE is not TOUGH to understand

·       Krishna: The Ultimate ScrumMaster chosen by Pandavas

·       Estimations​​​​​​​

The idea is to make Team able to understand & execute practices and at the same time develop psychologies & values in their mind.

 

Conclusion

In last 5 years, I worked with many teams & I realized these 3 steps are the core to help any team in its agile journey. It is not the journey from Traditional to Agile, rather it is the journey of Earning Trust & Cultivating Team Spirit which can be achieved by practising Values, understanding Principles & executing Best Practices. Once Netflix CEO said -

"Do not tolerate brilliant jerk. The cost of teamwork is too high." Believe me, I found it so helpful in building an Agile Team.

As SM I helped many teams in their Agile journey but I believe:

“A SM is successful only when her/his team is in condition when SM is not required.”

And so my journey (to attack LLE in CHALLENGE = CHANGE) goes on ...