What are some techniques for retrospectives for dysfunctional teams?

Initiator: Catherine Peck-Phillips
Note taker:  Christina Alonso
Participants:

Discussion / Key Concepts / Quotes / Revelations / Highlights

• The dysfunction
• Dev teams are more interested or committed than other teams.
• Transparency is important.
• Some team members have a fear of process.
• People use buzz words, but are not really doing “it”
• Things get discussed at retro, but it doesn’t get resolved.  Problems keep coming up retro after retro.
• Metrics can be good, but stay in tuned with how they react to metrics.  If they like it, great!  If not, use pictures or some other way to inform them w/o making the team feel bad/
• Know your team!!  Learn what they respond well to.
• There are certain issues that should be addressed outside of retro–perhaps by the coach or manager only.
• Resources
• Retro wiki
• Tastycupcakes.org
• Strengthfinder assessment
• Belbin (role based assessment)
• Myers Briggs personality assessment
• The Ideal Team Player (book by Patrick Lencioni)

Recommendations / Next Steps / Actions

• Things to keep in mind for Retros
• Create action items and assign them to someone (Scrum Master)
• Ensure there is actual value in the meetings
• Make retros anonymous.  Let the environment be safe!
• Team should select what they want to discuss or to find a solution for.
• Mix up exercises to help the discussion and improve conversation.
• Make sure to stay focused on the topic being discussed…and timebox discussions to ensure all ideas are covered.
• Make time not just to complain, but to find a solution.
• Create list of impediments throughout the sprint, so you don’t forget them/
• Have someone record all good/bad things that happen in order to ensure that the “bad” things are also discussed.
• Review team improvements
• Let the team lead the discussion.
• Show data when Possible
• Establish groundrules for the retro before the meeting starts. (technology down)
• Retro techniques
• Use tastycupcakes.org for retro ideas.
• Take a walk, talk to someone new
• Try “escape rooms”
• Win, lose, or draw game
• Have teams draw how they felt throughout the sprint, and review with team
• Massage table–“massage” out issues
• The team must follow through with action items.