The 4L Liked Learned Lacked Retro with direct access & tips
Are you looking for the “retrospective liked learned lacked”? Then you probably mean the 4L retrospective. I’ll be happy to explain them to you.
Retrospective Liked Learned Lacked
The 4 retrospective questions asked
The “liked learned lacked” retrospective usually consists of 4 simple questions. It is called 4L retrospective because these 4 questions each contain a verb that starts with the letter “l”. Here they are:
- Liked: [Optional: Related to the last sprint/weeks…] What did you like?
- Learned: What did you learn?
- Lacked: What did you lack?
- Longed for: What did you long for?
By the way, you can do this retrospective online using our retrospective tool Echometer now (no registration necessary):
Open this retro now4L Retrospective - 3 Tips
- As a Scrum Master and psychologist, I recommend using an adequate check-in or icebreaker as a “warm-up question” in every retrospective, not only in the “liked learned lacked” retrospective (see Retro Check-In Formats ). The check-in has a lot of influence on the participation of the team members during the main part of the retrospective.
- Did you know that one of the prerequisites for successful teams is Psychological Safety? (see Psychological safety ) Okay, you already knew that. Do you know a simple but good signal for a psychologically safe team? Pay attention: The speaking time of the team members is evenly distributed! Of course, this is difficult to achieve. But one simple thing you can do is, firstly, raise awareness of this in the team. And secondly, you could actively ask the more introverted team members for their thoughts and comments to encourage this a little.
- When doing an online retrospective, consider using a retrospective tool. Retrospectives are the most important ceremony in agile. So you should be ready to invest into them. \nCurrently you are using a whiteboard or a task management tool? Well, would you use a whiteboard to do your annual sales planning or to design a new mockup? \nRight, with the right tools, that is a lot easier. So I recommend to use a team development tool like Echometer Echometer to help you with your team development. Echometer is free for up to 12 team members and even helps you to implement a continuous team health check based on psychological know how. \nIn case you are not sure yet which to try out, feel free to have a look at our comparison of 14 retrospective tools online for beginners and pros.
Conclusion - 4L Retrospective “Liked Learned Lacked”
The “Liked Learned Lacked Longed for” retrospective is one of the retrospective classics. I hope this post has helped you to make it a success.
In case you are interested in surprising your team with some other classical or very fancy retrospective ideas, I recommend to have a look at our post on 32 kickass retrospective ideas for beginners and professionals. .
