eBook preview - a practitioners guide to establishing a powerful change process using retrospectives

20+ facilitation tips for great retrospectives

Learn how to establish an effective change process through retrospectives

  • For active managers, Scrum Masters & Agile coaches who want to promote sustainable team development
  • Based on several years of experience with agile teams and agile transformations
  • 30-page eBook with practical tips that you don't learn in training courses

Readers about the eBook

Well organized and really comprehensive guide for retrospectives!

Tomasz Żelezny

Tomasz Żelezny

Scrum Master

5/5

Insight into the topics of the eBook

The eBook is in English. Hence this section in English.

Chapter 1: Get the Basics Right

Before you start with retrospectives, there are a couple of basics that you should take care of. Skip this chapter, and chances are that your retrospectives will suck and you can’t figure out why.
  • Internalize the "Prime directive"
  • Don't confuse the "Vegas rule"
  • Team rules rule!
  • Consistency is key - don't cancel retrospectives
  • Facilitation rights need to be earned
  • Yes, you're creative - but start easy
  • Give room to nay-sayers

Chapter 2: Survive in the Jungle of Retro Formats

As many options as there are to design a retrospective, there are just as many ways to muck it up.

Instead of suggesting specific formats (there are enough out there), this chapter presents guiding principles that help you build your own retrospective formats and enable you to anticipate what may work and what doesn’t.
  • Understand the double-diamond
  • Don't skip check-ins
  • Collect feedback upfront
  • The best retro is shorter than you think (avoid 60+ minutes)
  • No action items in the first half
  • Embrace silence & be comfortable to interrupt

Chapter 3: Taking Action

While everyone talks about creative retrospective formats, reflecting about how to define great actions often falls short. But: The perceived value of retrospectives is highly coupled to the effectiveness of derived action items.

It’s time to shift the attention!
  • When "no action item at all" is the best option
  • Take your time to get it right
  • Establish "Action Item Review"
  • Introduce a WIP limit
  • No backlogging
  • Visualize continuous improvements

What the author says about the eBook

Jean Michel Diaz
Many teams use retrospectives without taking the actual added value from them.
The result is then not surprising: Retro-fatigue in the teams.
With this eBook, we want to contribute to making the topic of team development and change through retrospectives in practice more effective and sustainable with structure.
Jean Michel Diaz
Co-Founder Echometer & Scrum Master

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