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Take a moment to consider the following question:
What is the most important thing about retrospectives?
Is it that they take place regularly?
Is it that they involve the whole team, and nothing but the team?
Is it that the results are actionable?
I don't know that there is one most important
thing, because all of the above can make or break
retrospectives. I've been places where retros barely
took place; I've attended retrospectives where few
people showed up; and I've been to ones that were
little more than “shoot the breeze” or venting.
Let me offer one more answer: A trained, impartial
facilitator.
You might already know that retrospectives need
facilitation. Facilitation turns a retrospective from
group discussion to structured discovery, one that
results in action (and doesn't get hijacked by
dominant personalities).
But there's more to retrospectives than process and
moderation. You can easily collect “worked well”,
“needs improvement”, and practical action items that
are all superficial or obvious.
Deep retrospectives are where the money is. In
them, team members talk about what really hurts, what
truly doesn't work for them, and it's these
introspections that really have the team move
forward, grow, and perform better.
As such, they can be a pretty sensitive affair.
Hence the first thing any retrospective facilitator
must do is establish a safe environment.
Most of the new to Agile have double trouble there:
One, they have few (if any) people who can, or care
to facilitate properly. Two, their chosen
retrospective leader is rarely impartial.
If your facilitator is one of the team members,
that will hamper or bias their participation. And if
it's a person of authority (worse yet, the boss of
some team members), you won't get much useful input.
You might go with the default choice: the
ScrumMaster or team coach. Again, their neutrality
and skill might fall short of the needs. Some ScrumMasters are
managers or team leads; even without meaning to, they
might intimidate some team members into silence.
ScrumMasters sometimes have yet another handicap,
which has to do with their former role or the
expectations from them. As retrospective leaders,
they must truly not be invested in its outcome. They
lead the reflection process and serve the team — whatever the
team might discover or decide. For relatively rookie
ScrumMasters, that's a scary attitude.
So what can you do? As part of your Agile
implementation, each of your teams must have access
to people who can lead impartial retrospectives.
These folks can be “home-grown”, borrowed from
other teams, or even from HR. They must learn and
develop these skills. You might want to hire out for
the first couple of retros, as an example and
training opportunity for them. I wouldn't recommend
rotating the role among team members: nobody learns
deeply this way.
The value of properly-run deep retrospectives
cannot be underestimated. You'll do well to invest in
them. Let me know how I can help you.
Copyright © 2010, 3P Vantage, Inc. All rights reserved.
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