I made a few adjustments to this Retrospective since this year most of the world is still in work from home mode. This one is completely remote/virtual friendly.
When your team needs to be reminded that they are part of a bigger picture than just themselves or when they need to identify the ripple effects and how they might impact them and/or when they face impossible odds this is the Retrospective to use. It is also great when the timing is near Cinco de Mayo and you want a good excuse to have tacos 🙂
This Retrospective focuses on one of the Scrum Team values, openness, that help the team think about how openness is not just being willing to be open yourself, but also means being open to new ideas. That thought leads to a question about how can we as a team be more open to new ideas, not only from each other but from stakeholders as well? And that leads to how can we be more effective in creative problem solving together and exceeding expectations with stakeholders? When it is time to gather feedback we also add in looking for the ripple effect in things and what, if anything, that we are facing seem impossible to overcome? All, while munching on a delicious taco bar? Olé!
I highly recommend encouraging your team to make some festive foods, so here’s the Pinterest link of awesome ideas. There are also several nacho bar and individual Cinco de Mayo snack ideas included as well – keep in mind chomping on chips through a headset mic can be challenging 🙂
To set the stage I started off with some thought provoking quotes that led to some great discussion about how openness is more than being willing to be open about yourself, but it is also about being willing to be open to others and their ideas. This led to some eye opening realizations from some of the team about hearing others on the team out more, being more open to stakeholder ideas, and even being open to questioning themselves- always beautiful to see growth in ourselves and others.
GOAL: To help your team see WHY openness is a Scrum team value and to grow in and practice using it.
Next we did a traditional Cinco de Mayo activity with a twist, a Scrum scavenger hunt! Since we remote the scavenger hunt looks different and includes vague things for people to find like; find something fuzzy, something from nature, something cold, something wet, something rough, something that is a treasure etc. Use your imagination and get creative, everyone is at home so the goal is still to get people on their feet and getting them to think creatively as well. I’m doing 5 minutes to gather things and then everyone come back and we’ll hold up our things together and look and briefly discuss/ laugh etc.
GOAL: Get everyone on their feet, thinking in a different way about things they use/ see daily, and practicing creative problem solving and team building while having fun. Â
Turns out Cinco de Mayo is a fascinating story full of potential ripple effects and impossible odds. I started the Gathering Feedback with a short history lesson you can pull from here. And I used the following things to help the team with providing feedback by creating a board everyone can edit in real time on Idea Boardz.com;
Mexican Flag – for what did we think had little to no chance of working out but just might?
French Flag – what did we think was a easy win but it ended up not working at all, or as planned?
Battle of Puebla – what situation, problem, or event are you facing that looks like it has impossible odds of working?
Ripple effect/ America – what are any ripple effects you see and their impacts. Like if France had beat Mexico and had then come to the aid of the Confederate Army in the Civil War, the entire outcome of the war could have been drastically different?
GOAL: This gathering feedback encourages the team to think about things in a what if way, which helps them see how things are inter-related and one thing impacts another. The value of this understanding is immense it helps lessen frustrations and increases understanding and patience and most of all helps in the practice of openness.
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!