{"id":524,"date":"2020-06-26T21:21:50","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T19:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/?p=524"},"modified":"2020-07-03T10:42:25","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T08:42:25","slug":"postcards-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/postcards-42\/","title":{"rendered":"Postcards (#42)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>[This post was first published in 2012 when Retromat was tiny and new. Seems like a lifetime ago.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m always looking for inspiration for retrospectives e.g. over at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/vinylbaustein.net\/tag\/retrospective\/\" target=\"_blank\">Thorsten Kalnin\u2019s<\/a> or in the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/retrospectivewiki.org\/index.php?title=Main_Page\" target=\"_blank\">retrospectives wiki<\/a>.  Time to give back! This is a format I tried out some time ago: The basic idea is to let the participants describe the issue with a  metaphor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>A <strong>metaphor<\/strong> is a literary <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Figure_of_speech\" target=\"_blank\">figure of speech<\/a> that uses an image, story or <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tangibility\" target=\"_blank\">tangible<\/a> object to represent a less tangible object or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., \u201cHer eyes were glistening jewels.\u201d<br> <em>(Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Metaphor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Wikipedia<\/a>)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>There are several ways to have participants come up with metaphors, e.g.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>\u201cWhich movie title would best describe our sprint?\u201d<\/li><li>Drawing the sprint as described in this <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.codecentric.de\/en\/2010\/08\/a-different-take-on-sprint-retrospectives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">blog entry<\/a><\/li><li>Or\u2026 Choose a postcard as a representative!<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/finding-marbles.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/retrospective-with-postcards3.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"354\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/retrospective-with-postcards.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-526\" srcset=\"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/retrospective-with-postcards.jpg 354w, https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/retrospective-with-postcards-212x300.jpg 212w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 354px) 100vw, 354px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There are two reasons to use metaphors in a retrospective: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>It gives a shared understanding of someone\u2019s perspective<\/li><li>It can open a path to find new solutions. It\u2019s similar to an approach you sometimes take in math: Say, you have a problem and don\u2019t  know how to solve \/ approach it. Some problems can be transformed into  an analoguous form in a different field of mathematics, where it can be  solved. Afterwards you transform the solution back to the originating  field and have a solution to the original problem. Tada<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"729\" height=\"366\" src=\"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/methapors.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-527\" srcset=\"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/methapors.png 729w, https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/methapors-300x151.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 729px) 100vw, 729px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Enough theory, this is how the session went down:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Situation:<\/strong> The developers and PO were going through a rocky patch back then and I wanted to help them overcome this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Preperation:<\/strong> I selected about 30 postcards for 5 participants and 2 rounds. For most postcards I had a loose association how they might relate to the topic. On top of that I stacked a few random and \/ or abstract images for good measure. (Who would have thought my impressive collection of postcards would come in handy for my agile endeavours?) I scattered the postcards all over the room on the  floor, so that the participants have to get up and wander about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Session plan:<\/strong> The postcards were part of the Information Gathering phase:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Pick the postcard that best resembles how you see the team right now.<br>\n(No shared postcards. If you\u2019re not fast enough, pick another one.)<\/li><li>Write down 3 keywords that describe how you see the team (with regards to the postcard)<\/li><li>In turn everyone hangs up their postcard and keywords and explain their choice<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Usually you\u2019d only have one round but we had a second round on the \nquestion \u201cHow would you like the team to be 3 months from now?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Followed by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mycoted.com\/Brainwriting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Brainwriting<\/a>: How could we get from the Now-state to the Wish-state?<br> (I often do written activities to level the playing field for quieter team members.)<\/li><li>Collect all Brainwriting ideas, cluster and dot-vote which 3 suggestions to talk about.<\/li><li>Create action items (preferably as <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/topachievement.com\/smart.html\" target=\"_blank\">SMART goals<\/a>)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It was the most productive brainwriting session I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[This <a href=\"http:\/\/borisgloger.com\/scrummaster-pro\/impediment-management\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Change Management training<\/a> gave me the idea with the postcards.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PS: Need more ideas for retrospectives? Try out my very own <a href=\"http:\/\/www.retromat.org\/\">Retr-O-Mat<\/a> &#x1f642;<br> The <a href=\"http:\/\/retromat.org\/?id=42\">Postcards are Activity #42<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/plans-for-retrospectives.com\/?id=66\">Brainwriting is Activity #66<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/retromat.org\/?id=13\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">SMART Goals are Activity #13<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[This post was first published in 2012 when Retromat was tiny and new. Seems like a lifetime ago.] I\u2019m always looking for inspiration for retrospectives e.g. over at Thorsten Kalnin\u2019s or in the retrospectives wiki. Time to give back! This is a format I tried out some time ago: The basic idea is to let &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/postcards-42\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Postcards (#42)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":528,"href":"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524\/revisions\/528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retromat.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}