How’s this for a retrospective problem: “Our retrospectives are huge complain-fests. All the team ever does is blame others and whine, whine, whine. Honestly, I don’t know what to do…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s common for newly agile teams judging from how often I have heard descriptions like “The team eternally blames external parties. They never come up with any action items.” Well, why would they when it’s all somebody else’s fault anyway…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blaming others is a convenient way to avoid taking responsibility and changing oneself. So how do you get a team out of this attitude? I describe several tactics in the ebook “Retromat \u2013 Run great agile retrospectives<\/a>” and wanted to share them with you, too:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I start by stressing \u201cyou\u201d a lot, as in \u201cWhat are _you_ going to do about it?\u201d Here are activities supporting this angle:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surprisingly you can also try a very positive angle: Talking about what the team did well sometimes opens up a window to also talk about what didn\u2019t work out, e.g. with Appreciative Inquiry<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In general, I\u2019m a fan of the solution-focused approach, where you avoid analyzing the problem and look for things to try out instead. The following activities fit this approach:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A change of perspective can help the team to empathize with their scape goat and see things in a new light. It can also do wonders if the scape goat attends the retrospective and shares their view and reasoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Try:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If all else fails I try an intervention along the lines of \u201cWe can\u2019t change other people. We can only change our own perspective and behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have you ever tried one of these with a finger-pointing team? How did it turn out?<\/p>\n\n\n How’s this for a retrospective problem: “Our retrospectives are huge complain-fests. All the team ever does is blame others and whine, whine, whine. Honestly, I don’t know what to do…” It’s common for newly agile teams judging from how often I have heard descriptions like “The team eternally blames external parties. They never come up … <\/p>\n\u201cWhat are you going to do about it?\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Solution focus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Change perspective<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
PS: Did you know there's a Retromat eBook Bundle? Ready-made retrospective plans for beginners and all activities from Retromat for experienced facilitators. Check out the Retromat books<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"