Running your first retro after something went wrong

The room you're walking into

Something went wrong. A release broke, a deadline slipped, a client complained, a mistake reached a patient or a customer. Everyone knows it. Some people feel guilty, some feel blamed, and some are already rehearsing their defence.

This retro isn't like the routine ones. People are watching to see one thing: is it safe to tell the truth here? How you run the next hour answers that question for a long time.

Set the rules before anyone speaks

Say the ground rules out loud at the start. Don't assume people know them.

We're looking for causes, not culprits. If a good person made a mistake, something made that mistake easy to make.
Facts first, opinions later. We build the timeline before anyone explains why.
Nobody is in trouble for what they say here. And then you have to mean it, next week and next month.

How to run it

Open with the facts. In two or three sentences, say what happened and what the impact was. No adjectives, no blame.
Build the timeline together. Everyone adds what they saw and did, in order. Silent writing first, so the quietest person's view gets on the wall.
Mark the decision points. Where could someone have chosen differently? What did they know at that moment, not what we know now?
Ask "what made that make sense?" People rarely do something they think is wrong. Find out why it looked right at the time.
Sort causes into what you control. Process, tools, workload, handovers, communication. Leave "be more careful" off the list. It isn't an action.
Agree two or three actions. One owner and one date each. Fewer, done properly, beats a long list nobody touches.
Close by thanking people for their honesty. Specifically, and especially whoever was closest to the mistake.

Questions that help and questions that hurt

Instead of	Ask
Why did you do that?	What did you know at that point?
Who signed this off?	How does sign-off usually work, and what was different this time?
How did nobody spot this?	What would have made this easier to spot?
This can't happen again.	What would we need to change so it's less likely?

What to say

If you were part of what went wrong, say so first. It gives everyone else permission.

"Before we start: I want to be clear this isn't about finding someone to blame. I'm part of this too. I didn't push back on the deadline when I should have. What I want is to understand how it happened, so we can make it harder to happen again. Anything said here stays about the work, not the person."

The person closest to it

Talk to them privately before the retro. Tell them what you'll say at the start, and ask if there's anything they want to share or would rather you raised. Then watch the room. If anyone starts circling them, step in: "Let's stay on the system, not the person."

In other industries

A near miss on a ward, a filing error at a firm, a batch of faulty parts off the line: the same approach works. Many safety-critical fields already run reviews this way, because blame makes people hide mistakes, and hidden mistakes come back bigger.

Try this week

Before your next retro on something that went wrong, write the opening two sentences of fact and practise saying them without an adjective.

Think about it

If the person who made the mistake left the retro feeling worse than when they arrived, what would they do next time something goes wrong?

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Retros26 October 2026 · 2 min