Transcript
Vasco Duarte (0:04)
Hey there, agile adventurer, just a quick question. What if for the price of a fancy coffee or half a pizza, you could unlock over 700 hours of the best agile content on the planet? That's audio, video, E courses, books, presentations, all that you can think of. But you can also join live calls with world class practitioners and hang out in a flame war free and AI slop clean slack with the sharpest minds in the game. Oh, and yes, you get direct access to me, Vasko, your Scrum Master Toolbox podcast. No, this is not a drill. It's this Scrum Master Toolbox membership. And it's your unfair advantage in the agile world. So if you want to know more, go check out scrummastertoolbox.org membership. That's scrummastertoolbox.org Membership. And check out all the goodies we have for you.
Host/Co-host (1:04)
Do it now. But if you're not doing it now.
Vasco Duarte (1:07)
Let'S listen to the podcast.
Host/Co-host (1:11)
Hello everybody. Welcome to our success. Thursday, the big question of the week. Of course, this week with Sara DiGregorio. Hey Sara, welcome back. So before we dive into success, which is really the big question of the week, let's talk about retrospectives. We were talking about it yesterday and we'll talk about it today, but from a different angle. Share with us what what's your favorite agile retrospective format and why?
Sara Di Gregorio (1:37)
Okay, so first of all, I know that a lot of us are working from home, but for the person that like me, can work half from home and half from the office, could be very valuable to have the retrospective in office. Because for me, the retrospective is one of those key moments where being in the same room can make a big difference. Of course, when it's possible, when it's not possible, we can have other, we can do other experiments and so on. I usually like to start retrospective with a simple, funny icebreaker to help people disconnect from the their day. Okay, the week and reconnect with the team. Because as I always say to the team I work with, guys, you are very lucky to have a moment to discuss with your team about how we can improve. Because it's not something that we have to say, okay. It's because not in all the companies we have. These people is so lucky. Lately I've been experimenting free format. But after trying many structured approach together, I thought that could be a good idea to start with a white paper and a lot of sticky notes Sharpies. So what we do, just a paper, pens of different colors and starting with an open conversation, sometimes we start guiding the retrospective by data or metrics. But other times it's how the team is feeling that day. So I start, guys, what did impact you mostly during the last week? How do you feel today? I've been seeing great response from the team. So it was an experiment that I tried. After a lot of structured retrospective that I think that are very important to do and to follow, and I always try to do, sometimes in this format and sometimes in the structured format, they are more engaged. This is what I saw more open and more present in the conversation. Maybe because it was something new. So instead of starting always with the same different but same structured conversations format, I said, okay, white paper, pens, everyone can write, of course, following a structured conversation. So who want to start? Okay, but everyone has the possibility to write in the white paper. I'm not saying that the structural format don't work because as I said before, they are very useful for me. But sometimes breaking the routine and creating spacing for true reflections bring out something deeper and more meaningful.
