No kid likes to eat brussels sprouts. They’ll stuff those things into their pockets, feed them to the dog, or even fake sick - anything to avoid actually going through with it.
But the problem is rarely the vegetable. Most parents are just terrible at preparing them. When sauteed with olive oil, garlic, parmesan - they just might be the most delicious food you’re not eating.
Now, we don’t make our engineers eat brussels sprouts but we do make them participate in weekly retrospectives. And often we get a similar reaction from new hires, a slight eye roll and early signs of indigestion. But we also always ask them why they don’t like retros…
Where retros go wrong (and surprising things to watch out for)
Retro challenges typically exist in two areas: accountability and communication.
A retrospective is a platform to uncover what went right and what went wrong over the past sprint. But simply discussing those things isn’t productive, they need to come with specific actions. Too many retros focus on the “what now” and not enough on the “what next”.
Of course, it’s hard to create that culture of accountability if the right information isn’t being shared. A hesitancy to criticize your own work and your teammates' contributions means that issues fester and never get solved.
And both of these things compound due to lack of consistency. An unproductive retro meeting makes the next one more likely to be cancelled or skipped - and the more they don’t happen, the less impactful they become.
Here are three signs you should watch out for that your retros can be improved:
- Everything is positive
There should be a little friction in these conversations. If there isn’t, you may have a problem. Improvement doesn’t happen without talking about challenges. If no one has anything negative to say, it’s likely that they just aren’t comfortable bringing up more sensitive topics.
2. Excuses are made around sensitive topics
There’s a big difference between identifying solutions and making excuses. If you or team members are explaining away feedback or not receiving feedback well, you’re missing a huge opportunity to improve and may discourage valuable future feedback.
3. Meetings are inconsistent
You should have a regular cadence (we recommend bi-weekly, at least) that rarely changes. If you’re noticing rescheduled or missed meetings, you're missing an opportunity to create a culture of feedback and improvement.
Retros are about consistent transparency
Once they get a taste of them, our engineers are all in on our retros - here’s why:
- There’s an emphasis on facts
We’re focused on creating an environment for people to be open and honest with each other about their work. It’s not personal and we base the conversation around facts, not opinions. In that way, there’s very little debate about what’s behind positive or negative outcomes. We’re not robots though, we encourage feedback to be met with gratitude - it’s the best way to learn!
- They make the work better
Our retros always lead to specific action items. The first thing we do in our weekly meeting is review the previous week’s action items and determine if they’re still relevant. It keeps the entire team on track and reduces ambiguity.
- We’re consistent
We don’t skip retrospectives. Culture gets developed by how things are done over time and these regular conversations foster continuous improvement. Plus, the more we do them, the more impactful they become.
And oh yeah, we do our retrospectives with client teams too. If you want to understand more about our process and how we help established software teams get more done, let us know.
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