10 retrospective ideas (must-read!)

It's that time again:
“This stupid retro meeting again.
I can solve 3 more tasks from the board in that time.”

How often have you heard team members say that?
Probably not at all.

Maybe because they love retro so much or
maybe because they don't dare to tell you?

You are the manager.
What are the consequences of telling the truth?

According to statistics, 91% of participants daydream in meetings.
And 31% even admit that they have dozed off before.

To counteract this, we discuss the following topics in this article

Give your retro meetings new impetus with 10 ideas
Atmosphere of truth - Can we open up?
Questions for self-reflection and retro-reflection
Conclusion
Frequently asked questions

If you don't yet know what a retrospective is, read this article.

What retro meetings have to do with fitness

Imagine you go to the gym every day

and every day you do the same fitness exercises.

Boring, right?

(No offense - we totally understand!)

But you know that fitness is good for your health.

How can you motivate yourself to keep doing it?

The answer: New exercises that train the same muscles.

And you need the same for your retro.

You need new ideas to keep your retros exciting,

but the effect remains the same (improving the working atmosphere)

Give your retro meetings new impetus with 10 ideas

Here are 10 ideas to keep your retros exciting and fun.

Remark:

We use the English names for the ideas here so that you can research them more easily if you are interested.
For all of the following methods you need
- (offline) either a flipchart with paper or whiteboard with pens
- (online) a tool like Collaboard so that team members can write on a digital whiteboard at the same time and everyone can read it.

1.Mad, Sad, Glad method (Angry, Sad, Happy)

a) What makes it so special?

The Mad, Sad, Glad method addresses the emotions of team members during the last sprint. The method aims to ensure that emotional people are more willing to speak the truth.

b) How does it work?

Here is a sequence:

Step 1:

Draw three columns with the following headings:

Mad, Sad, Glad (in German: Wünd, Sadig, Glücklich).

Draw a line under the columns and write: “Action Steps”.

Step 2:

The facilitator of the sprint goes through a column.

For example, for Mad (angry) he says: “What made you angry in the last sprint?”

Step 3:

Then everyone can write their opinion in this column about what made him or her angry.

Step 4:

Discuss why this

made the person angry

Ask other team members if they also feel this way

Discuss solutions on how to improve this

Step 5:

Agree on common solutions and write those down as one item at the bottom of “Action Steps”.

Repeat steps 2 to 4 for the other two columns (“sad” and “glad”).

2. 4 L’s

a) What makes it so special?

This is called 4 L's because we are discussing the 4 dimensions (liked, learned, lacked, longed for).

Here we try to bring more clarity to the thoughts.

Positive impressions are divided into two categories:

Liked: Liked
Learned: Learned.

And negative aspects are also divided into two categories:

Lacked: Missing and
Longed for: To long for something.

This has the effect that you know what is important for the team. Top-priority (Did, Missed) and which should encourage reflection (Learned, Longing for something).

b) How does it work?

Step 1:
We make four columns with the following terms:

Liked (Gemocht)
Learned (Gelernt)
Lacked (Gefehlt)
Longed for (sich nach etwas sehnen)

Under these four columns we draw a long line and with two columns “Action Step” and “To reflect”.

Step 2 - 4:

These are similar to the Mad, Sad, Glad method.

Step 5:

Action steps are taken here only from the Liked and Lacked columns.

Findings from the Learned and Longed for columns are entered in the “To Reflect” column.

Tip:
Collaboard offers a ready-made template for the 4L method.

Collaboard & Speaker Eventseite (1412 x 880 px) (1)

3. Starfish

a) What makes it so special?

Like the 4 L's method, the Starfish method attempts to derive clarity for the team members by filtering what

has absolute priority and

what should be reflected upon.

The filtering happens through 5 essential questions.

b) How does it work?

Step 1:
We make five columns with the following terms:

What should we continue to do?
What should we do less of?
What should we do more of?
What should we stop doing?
What should we start doing?

Under the columns we draw a line with “Action Steps” and “To Reflect”.

Step 2 - 4:

This works identically to the Mad, Sad, Glad method.

Step 5:

Question 1 and Question 4 infer that these are among top priorities for team members.

The answers to question 4 should therefore be included in the actions.

Questions 2, 3 and 5 instead show a tendency to try something more or less.

This can be placed in the “To be reflected” column so that the team leader can come up with ideas and translate them into concrete actions in the next sprint.

Collaboard & Speaker Eventseite (1412 x 880 px) (2)

4. Sailboat

a) What makes it so special?

The sailboat method is based entirely on its name.

Imagine you are on a sailing boat.

Then there are usually the following objects that accompany you on the journey:

The wind: It ensures that you make progress.
The sun: It ensures that you are in a good mood.
The anchor: It prevents you from making progress.
The reef: It ensures future risks that sink your boat.

The task now is to classify all the findings from the sprint into these categories.
For us, the sailboat metaphorically stands for the project and the crew for the team.

b) How does it work?
Step 1:

As always, we make one column for each factor.

So, one column each with the heading:

Wind: What has helped you to make progress with your tasks?
Sun: What put you in a good mood?
Anker: What has hindered you in your work?
Riff: What future risks do you see for the project that could cause it to falter?

Draw a line at the bottom and make two columns with each:
Action Steps
To Reflect

Tip
Collaboard even comes with a ready-made template.
Try it now for free for up to 5 team members.

Step 2 - 4:

Follow the same steps as you did for the Mad, Sad, Glad method.

Step 5:

We write the proposed solutions for the anchor problems in actions.

We create the reef problems in the “To Reflect” column.

The former should be implemented directly in the next sprint.
The project manager should think about the latter and present suggestions and solutions at the next retro meeting. Collaboard offers a free Sailboat Retrospective Template.

Collaboard & Speaker Eventseite (1412 x 880 px) (3)

KALM

a) What makes it so special?

The KALM method stands for:

Keep: What should be retained?
Add: What should be added?
Less: What should be done less?
More: What more should be done?

This is very similar to the Starfish method with the difference that there is no stop (what should be stopped).

b) How does it work?
It works in a very similar way to the Starfish method.
Therefore, we will not discuss this in detail here.

Tip
Collaboard offers a template for this so that you can set up a retro more quickly.

Collaboard & Speaker Eventseite (1412 x 880 px) (5)

6.SWOT

a) What makes it so special?

The SWOT analysis comes from the business context and stands for:

Strengths: What are our strengths?
Weaknesses: What are our weaknesses?
Opportunities: What are the opportunities?
Threats: What are the threats?

The SWOT method can be projected very well onto the sailboat method.
The projection can look like this:

Strengths - Wind
Weaknesses - Anchor
Opportunities - Sun
Threats - Reef

b) How does it work?

Since the SWOT-method is similar to the sailboat method, the functionality of the sailboat method can be adopted.

7.Timeline Retrospective

a) What makes it so special?

Normally, retrospectives only look at the last sprint.

But shouldn't you examine the progress since the start of the project and draw conclusions from this?

This is where a timeline retrospective makes sense.

In the timeline retrospective, all

Strengths
Weaknesses

over a certain period of time.

These are then summarized and translated into actions.

b) How does it work?

You should have already collected a list of strengths and weaknesses each week or month in advance.

You can use a tool like Collaboard for this.

Team members can then share their ideas on the good and bad topics at any time.

After 1 - 3 months, these can then be presented collectively in a timeline retrospective and actions can be decided on the basis of them.

8. Story time

a) What makes it so special?
Over time, all ideas become more boring.

Instead, we can achieve team interaction as follows.
Everyone tells a short story from the last sprint about an emotional adjective (e.g. “angry”, “happy”).

b) How does it work?

Step 1:

You name an adjective.

Step 2:

Everyone writes a short (real) story about the last sprint on the sheet for the adjective.

Step 3:

You have someone read out their story for one of the adjectives.

Step 4:

The findings are collected together on the whiteboard and at the end of all the stories, actions emerge from them.

9.Start, Stop and Continue

a) What makes it so special?

The previous techniques were always structured in two stages.

First there was a brainstorming session and then actions were derived from this.

The “Start, Stop and Continue” method, however, is based directly on actions, with employees saying which actions:

should be started,
should be stopped, and
should be continued.

b) How does it work?

Three columns are displayed here with the headings:

Start,
Stop, und
Continue

created.

The other steps as with the other methods are omitted here. It is only discussed whether aspects should be moved from one column to another.

Tip
Collaboard also offers a template for this.

Collaboard & Speaker Eventseite (1412 x 880 px) (4)

10. Creativity

The last idea is the best: your own creativity.

Every idea will be boring again at some point.

Think about

of the ideas tried out,
the team feedback,
the personality of your employees, and
the effectiveness of the ideas

a new idea for your next retro meeting that will create more excitement for the team.

Atmosphere of truth - Can we open up?

These 10 ideas are tools to to lighten the mood and provide a change of scenery.

But all these ideas are worthless if the actual frame is not set correctly.

Imagine you have a beautiful car body. Now you can change the wallpaper: Change the color or replace the seats.

But that won't make your car drive if it doesn't have an engine.

The driving force behind the retrospective is the atmosphere.
The engineer behind this engine is you or the moderator.

It should be an atmosphere that allows every team member to speak his or her mind without, this

Condemned
Ridiculed
Terminated

will.

If team members are holding back, don't force them.

That will only make things worse.

Pressure doesn't help. Only sensitivity will help.

With the right mindset, you can slowly solve these problems.

Questions about self - and retro-reflection

Here we give you a few questions that can give you the right mindset for retros and generally when dealing with other people with different points of view.

1 - Be interested

We should show genuine interest in another person's opinion.

If we only do this because of the rules of the game, then other people smell hypocrisy from 100 km away.

Humans have a natural instinct just like dogs, who instinctively recognize danger.

2 - Listen and say thank you

Let your team members speak.

As a rule of thumb: speak 30% yourself and let the team speak 70%.

For every opinion that is expressed, show appreciation with a simple “thank you” or smile.

3 - Reflect - Can I be wrong?

Most team members are frustrated because opinions are asked for but not accepted.

If you are genuinely interested, you should take a step back every time you hear a controversial opinion and ask yourself: “Could I be wrong?”

4 - There is no right or wrong

Retrospective is a brainstorming tool.

There is no right or wrong and let your team members question everything:

Yes, even the retrospective itself.

This is the only way to create an atmosphere that welcomes all opinions.

5 - People will forget what you, but people never forget how you made them feel

At the end of the day, this is about people.

For people to work and live well, they need to feel good.

So it's less about what you say and more about how they feel when you say it.

I can understand that it is difficult to understand how and when someone feels.

And the best solution: Just ask the person.

Conclusion

It has been shown that retrospectives can become boring over time.

We have discussed 10 ideas to counteract this, but more important than that is the mindset and atmosphere behind each retrospective.

If the latter is not right, no idea will help you.

Retrospective ideas: Frequently asked questions

What are retrospective ideas?

These are solutions and suggestions for keeping retro meetings exciting.

How can I motivate my team to participate more in a retro?

This requires two ingredients:
Firstly, an atmosphere of trust and appreciation is needed. This is the basis, or rather the contents of the cake.
Secondly, you need ideas for implementing a retro. This is like icing a cake so that you don't have to eat the same cake every day.

What are popular ideas for retrospectives?

Very popular are the

“Mad, Sad, Glad” method,
KALM-Method and
Start, Stop and Continue-Method

Retrospective ideas to get your team actively involved

What retro meetings have to do with fitness

Give your retro meetings new impetus with 10 ideas

1.Mad, Sad, Glad method (Angry, Sad, Happy)

2. 4 L’s

3. Starfish

4. Sailboat

KALM

6.SWOT

7.Timeline Retrospective

8. Story time

9.Start, Stop and Continue

10. Creativity

Atmosphere of truth - Can we open up?

Questions about self - and retro-reflection

Conclusion

Retrospective ideas: Frequently asked questions

What are retrospective ideas?

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