Runs on PeopleBlog / Retros · 2 min read
Why your retros stopped working, and how to fix them
When a retro goes quiet, it's rarely because there's nothing to say. It's because saying it hasn't changed anything. Five fixes that bring the honesty back.
The symptom
The retro used to be lively. Now it's fifteen minutes of "nothing major, really" and a polite exit. The manager assumes things are fine. They usually aren't.
What's really going on
People stop raising things for one of three reasons. They raised something before and nothing happened. They raised something before and it was held against them. Or the person they'd need to talk about is in the room, and that person is often the manager.
A quiet retro isn't a calm team. It's a team that has stopped believing the meeting is worth the risk.
Five fixes
- Start with last time's action. Before anything new, report on what changed since the last retro. If nothing did, say so, and say why. This one habit does more for trust than any format.
- Speak last, or leave. If you're the manager, your opinion lands harder than you think. Speak last. Once a quarter, let the team run the retro without you and share what they choose.
- Rotate the facilitator. A different person each time brings a different style and makes it the team's meeting, not yours.
- Make it safe to be specific. Thank the first person who raises something difficult, in the room, every time. People watch what happens to the first person who's honest.
- Cut the actions to one. Five actions means none. One action, one owner, a date, and it shows up on the board like any other work.
What to say
To restart a retro that has gone quiet:
"I've noticed our retros have gone quiet, and I don't think it's because everything's fine. I think it's because we haven't acted on what you've raised. That's on me. Today I'll go first on what I've dropped, and we're picking one thing and actually doing it."
In other industries
The same pattern shows up in a practice team meeting, a partners' review or a shift debrief. Wherever people stop speaking up, check what happened the last time they did.
Try this week
Open your next retro by reading out the last three actions and what became of each one.
Think about it
What happened to the last person in your team who said something uncomfortable in a meeting?
Keep reading
Running your first retro after something went wrong
A missed launch, an outage, an angry client. The retro afterwards can rebuild trust or quietly break it. How to run one that finds causes, not culprits.
How to take over a team that's had a bad manager
The team you've inherited has learnt to keep its head down. They'll judge you on what you do, not what you say. How to earn back trust that someone else spent.
Leading a team you used to be part of
Yesterday you were one of them. Today you do their reviews. How to make the move to managing your friends without losing them, or your nerve.