The Solution-Focused Retrospective for Agile Teams, Turning Problems Into Goals | Zvonimir Durcevic

Summary

Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile Storytelling from the Trenches Episode: The Solution-Focused Retrospective for Agile Teams, Turning Problems Into Goals | Zvonimir Durcevic
Host: Vasco Duarte
Guest: Tsvonimir Durcevic
Release Date: April 3, 2025

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Introduction

In this insightful episode of the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast, host Vasco Duarte engages in a profound conversation with Tsvonimir Durcevic, an experienced Agile Coach and Certified Scrum Master. The discussion centers around leveraging solution-focused retrospectives to transform challenges into actionable goals, thereby enhancing team effectiveness and fostering a thriving Agile environment.

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Favorite Agile Retrospective Format: The Solution-Focused Approach

[01:14 – 06:25]

Tsvonimir shares his preferred retrospective format, emphasizing the Solution-Focused Retrospective, also known as the Problem-Goals or Problems Are Disguised Goals method. Drawing inspiration from Ralph Miaka and Veronika Jungwirth's work, this approach encourages teams to acknowledge existing problems without dwelling excessively on them. Instead, the focus swiftly shifts to defining clear, achievable goals.

Key Steps in the Solution-Focused Retrospective:

1. Identify Problems:

   • Teams list current issues on the left side of a vertically divided flip chart.
   • Example Quote:
     “You give the teams this ability, this opportunity to talk about things that are not going well.”
     — Tsvonimir Durcevic [02:12]

2. Define Goals:

   • On the right side, teams articulate what they desire instead of the identified problems.
   • Example Quote:
     “Please tell me what do you want instead? And then you write for each of these problem statements, they write what do they want differently.”
     — Tsvonimir Durcevic [03:00]

3. Voting and Prioritization:

   • Teams vote on the most critical goals to focus on, ensuring that actionable steps can be taken.
   • Example Quote:
     “Then we do the voting doting and just, you know, kind of see where do they want to focus.”
     — Tsvonimir Durcevic [04:15]

4. Scaling and Progress Assessment:

   • Teams rate their current progress towards each goal on a scale from 0 to 10, facilitating a discussion on incremental improvements.
   • Example Quote:
     “Just imagine you are one step further and you say, okay, so go one step further in the direction of 10.”
     — Tsvonimir Durcevic [05:00]

5. Action Planning:

   • Based on discussions, teams decide on small, manageable steps to move closer to their goals.
   • Example Quote:
     “Decide where do we want to start?”
     — Tsvonimir Durcevic [05:45]

Benefits Highlighted:

• Validates existing problems without entrenching the team in them.
• Encourages a forward-looking mindset by focusing on achievable goals.
• Enhances team collaboration and empowers members to take actionable steps.

Vasco Duarte complements Tsvonimir’s insights by emphasizing the importance of shifting towards future-oriented solutions, especially for non-technical challenges like communication or collaboration issues. This approach aligns with the principles of solution-focused coaching, fostering a constructive and proactive team dynamic.

Example Quote: “We validate the problems. That's very important. But then we shift towards the future because there are some problems that we can't tackle by going deeper.”
— Vasco Duarte [07:10]

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Defining Success as a Scrum Master

[08:11 – 12:36]

Vasco steers the conversation towards understanding what success means for a Scrum Master. Tsvonimir delineates success through the lens of team effectiveness, referencing Richard Hackman's model, which encompasses three core aspects:

1. Team Output and Outcomes:

   • Delivering quality products that meet customer needs in both quantity and quality.
   • Example Quote:
     “Team is effective when it's creating outputs, outcomes that the customers need in the quality and the quantity that they need.”
     — Tsvonimir Durcevic [08:45]

2. Team Growth and Capability Building:

   • Enhancing the team’s collaborative skills and their ability to deliver future projects.
   • Example Quote:
     “Helping the team grow in the collaboration and in the capability to deliver in the future.”
     — Tsvonimir Durcevic [09:15]

3. Individual Development:

   • Ensuring team members are satisfied with their work and have opportunities for personal growth.
   • Example Quote:
     “Individual development of team members. They need to be well satisfied with the work in the team with their own opportunities to develop and grow.”
     — Tsvonimir Durcevic [09:45]

Tsvonimir emphasizes the balance between these aspects to prevent team burnout, highlighting the common pitfall of achieving high output at the expense of team well-being.

Example Quote: “A team can be very successful, deliver a lot, everybody happy and then teams burn out. That is not.”
— Tsvonimir Durcevic [10:21]

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Strategies to Achieve Team Effectiveness

[10:27 – 12:36]

To support teams in achieving the outlined effectiveness, Tsvonimir suggests several strategies:

• Creating Feedback Structures:

  • Facilitating regular feedback from customers and stakeholders to align team output with organizational purpose.

• Enhancing Communication Skills:

  • Fostering better communication within the team to improve collaboration and problem-solving.

• Building Technical and Adaptive Capabilities:

  • Encouraging continuous learning and adaptation to stay ahead in a dynamic market landscape.

Example Quote: “Creating structures where the team will get feedback from the customers and the stakeholders so that the team can get this external view on how they are creating and fulfilling the purpose...”
— Tsvonimir Durcevic [11:00]

Vasco acknowledges the importance of Richard Hackman's team effectiveness model and encourages listeners to explore it further, ensuring that Scrum Masters have a robust framework to measure and enhance their teams' performance.

Example Quote: “We'll put the link in the show notes to Richard Hackman's model of team effectiveness. He also has a great book, so be sure to check it out.”
— Vasco Duarte [12:36]

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Conclusion

The episode provides a comprehensive exploration of the Solution-Focused Retrospective and its pivotal role in transforming team challenges into strategic goals. Tsvonimir Durcevic offers actionable insights into fostering team effectiveness through balanced focus on output, growth, and individual development. Hosts Vasco Duarte and Tsvonimir underscore the significance of intentional and structured retrospectives in building resilient and high-performing Agile teams.

Listeners are encouraged to adopt these practices to not only enhance their teams' productivity but also ensure sustainable growth and satisfaction among team members, ultimately defining true success as a Scrum Master.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• “You give the teams this ability, this opportunity to talk about things that are not going well.”
  — Tsvonimir Durcevic [02:12]

• “Then we do the voting doting and just, you know, kind of see where do they want to focus.”
  — Tsvonimir Durcevic [04:15]

• “We validate the problems. That's very important. But then we shift towards the future because there are some problems that we can't tackle by going deeper.”
  — Vasco Duarte [07:10]

• “Team is effective when it's creating outputs, outcomes that the customers need in the quality and the quantity that they need.”
  — Tsvonimir Durcevic [08:45]

• “A team can be very successful, deliver a lot, everybody happy and then teams burn out. That is not.”
  — Tsvonimir Durcevic [10:21]

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Additional Resources

• Richard Hackman's Model of Team Effectiveness: [Link in Show Notes]
• Recommended Reading: Management 3.0 by Jurgen Apello

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This episode serves as an invaluable resource for Scrum Masters seeking to refine their retrospective techniques and cultivate highly effective Agile teams. By embracing solution-focused methodologies and holistic team effectiveness models, Agile practitioners can drive meaningful and sustainable success within their organizations.

Transcript

[Oscar]

Have you ever wondered what it really takes to make Agile work well? At the Global Agile Summit, we're bringing you real life first person stories of Agile succeeding out there in the real world that will inspire you to take action. Whether you're a leader, a product innovator, a developer, you'll hear practical insights from those who've done it. They'll be telling their own stories from the stage. I'll tell you more about this at the end of this episode. So stay back and listen to the full detailed description of what we have in store for you at the Global Agile Summit. But if you can't wait, you can go right now to globalagilesummit.com and check out our full schedule for now onto the episode. But I'll see you at the end of this episode with more details on the Global Agile Summit. Talk to you soon. Hello everybody. Welcome to our success. Thursday, the big question of the week, of course, this week with Tsvone. Hey Tsvone, welcome back.

[Tsvonimir Durzevich]

Hi Oscar, Great to be here.

[Oscar]

If you try to find TSVone on LinkedIn, you will probably find Tsvonimir Durzevich. The link is in the show notes anyway, but he's been kind enough to have a nickname for us, to be able to pronounce his name without murdering it too much. All right, cool. So we're going to talk about success today, of course, but before we dive into that, Swane share with us, what is your favorite Agile retrospective format and why?

[Tsvonimir Durzevich]

Well, I have one, well, several formats that I use, but one is really, one is really, I'm really fond of it and it's a problem goals or it's called also problems are disguised goals. This is a solution focused format and I use it as described in the wonderful book from Ralph Miaka and Veronika Jungwirth. So it is a kind of a way for teams to talk a bit about the problems. Not too long to kind of, you know, let it out. You give the teams this ability, this, this, let's say, opportunity to talk about things that are not going well. Okay. And then not giving too much time, not, not, not leaving them in this problem space too long. Talk about, okay, so, so you have these problems. What do you want instead? Okay, what do you want to create to achieve? And there are some kind of solution focused question that can help them to create this statement that they want to, well, that they want to have different. Okay, so how it would look like when these problems are away? Okay. And the format is quite simple. You divide the flip shot Vertically in two sides. And you say from the left side you write problems. And you just keep kind of writing what the team members are saying. And then after a while you say, okay, thank you very much for sharing. So these are your problems on the left side. And you write on the left side goals and say, okay, so please tell me what do you want instead? And then you write for each of these problem statements, they write, okay, so what do they want differently, how it would look like when this problem is a way or solved? And when this is finished, you basically cut off the problem part and take it with you and say, okay, so I'm taking care of your problems and I'm really acknowledging that you have these problems so you don't just throw them away. Okay, you take these problems with you and say, now you're focusing on goals. What do you want to achieve? And then you do the vote doting and just, you know, kind of see where do they want to focus and take one of these goals and say, okay, so let's work with this one goal. And then there are techniques like scale questions where you say, okay, so where are we now currently from 0 to 10 when 0 is. We didn't even start achieving this goal to 10. We achieved this goal and we are very happy and so on. Where are you currently? Because when you have problems, sometimes there are some times in the past where these problems were not so big or you had some, some strategies or tactics to deal with the problem. So we tried to, we tried to find out what they did before to solve the problems. And they kind of, you can do it on the floor. You put the numbers from 0 till 10 and they say they don't need to choose a number as a team. They individually choose where they want to be. Important thing is to talk with them to say, okay, why are you there? So you're at number two, so tell me, what did you do to be already here at number two? And so you ask each team member, so they can hear each other, what do they talk about? And then say, okay, just imagine you are one step further and you say, okay, so go one step further in the direction of 10. And then look back and tell us, how did you manage this? So what were the things that you did to go one step further? And this is where we start collecting these things that can help them as a team to go one step further. And then let's decide where do we want to start?

[Oscar]

Yeah, and I really like how the conversation switches to what are we doing next? Now we don't invalidate the problems. On the contrary, we validate the problems. That's very important. But then we shift towards the future because there are some problems that we can't tackle by going deeper in the problem. Right. If it's a technology problem, we might be able to tackle it by going deeper and understanding root causes, like a performance problem or whatever. But when it's, for example, a people issue, right, like cooperation or collaboration with others, communication issues, we might gain a lot more. And that's what solution focused coaching is all about. We might gain a lot more in defining a better future and working towards that better future. Deliberately and concretely. Right?

[Tsvonimir Durzevich]

Exactly, exactly. And just to see, okay, so what we could do as a small step, a small experiment to see how, you know, doing one small step, seeing what we have achieved, are we going closer to solving the problem or we need to do something else? I think it's solution focused is really a beautiful way to help teams to reframe some problems that they had and also discover some things that they could influence more. You know, like kind of going into this zone of influence and maybe, you know, kind of trying where are the boundaries of the system? What, what could we do more? Okay, there are some hard boundaries and we need to accept them and teams need to accept them, but there are some boundaries that we can a bit, you know, like, push away.

[Oscar]

Yeah, absolutely. Of course we do all of this, all of these retrospective formats and approaches because we want to help teams succeed and of course, ourselves succeed as Scrum Masters. So let's dive into that. Svane, what does success mean for you as a Scrum Master?

[Tsvonimir Durzevich]

Thank you, Vasco. And this is a really, really great question. And I see this becoming more and more important to really be explicit about it and to be intentional about it. So when I talk about the success, for me as a Scrum Master is there are different levels of it. I will start with the team and team effectiveness. So the Scrum Master, I'm accountable for team effectiveness and what does it mean for me is I use a model from Richard Hackman about the team effectiveness. And this model is saying, so basically, team is effective when it's, well, basically creating outputs, outcomes that the customers need in the quality and the quantity that they need. And there are also two other aspects. One is to help the team grow in the collaboration and in the capability to deliver in the future. And the third aspect is individual development of team members. So basically, the team members, they need to be well satisfied with the work in the team with their own Opportunities to develop and grow. Okay. And with these three aspects of team effectiveness, kind of what the team, the functions of the team. So what is the team creating, delivering. How is team creating or work growing and creating capabilities to deliver in the future? And individual, responsive, individual, let's say satisfaction with work in the team. This is important because team can be very successful. Deliver a lot, everybody happy and then teams burns out. Like this team delivered, but teams out. So this is not.

[Oscar]

That's very common. We used to call them crunch time, right, where everybody's happy because we did it, but then everybody's burned out and then they take one or two months to recover and get back to their normal productive selves.

[Tsvonimir Durzevich]

Exactly, exactly. And the question is, okay, so what can we do as SCRUM Masters to support the team in achieving this team effectiveness? And there are different things. For example, one thing is to create structures where the team will get feedback from the customers and the stakeholders so that the team can. Team can get this external view on the, on the, on the, on the. How are they creating and fulfilling the purpose that the organization gave them this commissioning? Okay, every team is there because of some purpose and they need to understand, okay, how do they fulfilling this purpose for team drills of capabilities. Okay, so what do they need as a team to deliver? Also in the future, maybe there are some technical changes in the market. So many companies, it's not something new like going into the cloud, but this is something that a lot of company needs to take into consideration and to as a team they need skills to go there. So they need to build their capability and they also need to work on their own communication capabilities. So there are different aspects that the SCRUM Master can support team and their.

[Oscar]

I'd really like that model of team effectiveness. We'll put the link in the show notes to Richard Hackman's model of team effectiveness. He also has a great book, so be sure to check it out. And yeah, thank you very much for sharing all of that and all of those insights. Vane.

[Tsvonimir Durzevich]

Thank you. Thank you, Vaz.

[Oscar]

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