Have you ever considered how Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory could help your team to create a working agreement? Particularly one that is thorough but not too detailed? Does your team even have a working agreement? If yes, have they taken a few minutes in the last year or so, to see if it is still working for them and/or if they need to make any adjustments? Could you use some help in bringing up some of the reasons a working agreement is necessary without hurting any feelings? Would you like the process to be fun and enjoyable?
Then this is the Retrospective for you!
I start out by sharing this clip in an email a day or so beforehand with the team to pique interest and also to help give those who have no idea who Sheldon Cooper is and give them a taste of what an overzealous working agreement looks like as well as why they are necessary – room temperature is often included in agreements, just not to this degree 🙂
To kick off the Retrospective we actually watch another video that shows several common personality types and challenges in working in a team setting. The value of this is that you don’t have to bring them up, everyone can watch the video and infer from themselves if these apply to them and/or are an issue for the team.
To facilitate creating the working agreement have the team jot down their ideas and place them on a white board that is divided into two columns, one for positives like “be on time” and one for negatives like “don’t be late”. That way the same thing can be easily displayed both ways. The value in doing it this way is some people gravitate/ naturally think about things in the positive or in the negative and this way they can flow with the easiest way for them to think because the goal is to get the things the team needs working agreements on the post-it notes so we can then work on creating the agreement and enjoying a more productive less stressed team. Not trying to get people to think about everything in only one way.
To gather feedback divide the board into three parts and use these headings to help the team come up with meaningful feedback.
- Leonard and Penny’s relationship = things that are working well but they need attention to be perfect/ keep improving.
- Take-Out = things that you are comfortable with, predictable, working well as they are, only need to continue doing them rather than improve them.
- Roommate Agreement = things that are not working and need to be attended to so that they can work well, things that need attention, things that will improve the product, process, tools, satisfaction in doing the work.
We ended the Retrospective with a fun Big Bang Theory inspired game and of course enjoyed several Big Bang Theory themed snacks from this great PInterest board while we met.
For all the details including facilitator notes click here to request the complete step-by-step Retrospective and as usual please share how it went for your team, pics of your food, and any feedback you have on the Retrospective itself!