How do you keep retros from turning into therapy sessions?

Question

Every retro in my team is either finger-pointing or 45 minutes of &ldquo;we should communicate better.&rdquo; Now we log themes and points in Monday dev so the next sprint has actual, trackable changes. Do you guys have better ways to tackle this?

mmarian · Accepted Answer

Every discussion topic must have a trackable solution. Action points must be assigned to team members. Review progress on the action points.Easier said than done, I know. Tech lead has to drive this.

tweakonline · Answer

I hate retrospectives - and this is why. Please screw AGILE working completely and stop this bullshit.

cebert · Answer

I believe it&rsquo;s more effective to eliminate retrospectives and instead encourage team members to raise issues or concerns as they come up. This way, they can be addressed promptly and assigned ownership. Retrospectives can easily become unproductive meetings held every two weeks.

ano-ther · Answer

Re communication, here is what worked for me:
- identify what behaviors you want and what you want to avoid
- agree and write them down
- create an atmosphere to address the problems. For example in meetings, assign someone to observe. And let everyone call out good and bad behavior
- bring up the topic at the end of each meeting to track progress

sexyman48 · Answer

Load up on Mexican the night before, then let loose as the situation demands.

How do you keep retros from turning into therapy sessions?

Every retro in my team is either finger-pointing or 45 minutes of “we should communicate better.” Now we log themes and points in Monday dev so the next sprint has actual, trackable changes. Do you guys have better ways to tackle this?

Every discussion topic must have a trackable solution. Action points must be assigned to team members. Review progress on the action points.
Easier said than done, I know. Tech lead has to drive this.

I hate retrospectives - and this is why. Please screw AGILE working completely and stop this bullshit.

I believe it’s more effective to eliminate retrospectives and instead encourage team members to raise issues or concerns as they come up. This way, they can be addressed promptly and assigned ownership. Retrospectives can easily become unproductive meetings held every two weeks.

Load up on Mexican the night before, then let loose as the situation demands.