Can You Handle The Good News?

For our last iteration retrospective, which was the final one before release, we decided to take a little of our own advice and concentrate entirely on things we are doing well.  This has been a particularly long release that followed on the tail of a quick, well-executed targeted release so everyone would benefit from refocusing on the successes that got us to where we were.

We followed a framework similar to this one from Energized Work.

1. Quick introduction to describe the retrospective
2. Thank you notes between team members to get everyone engaged
3. Brainstorming on all the things we have done well in the recent past
4. Envisioning exercise to imagine the places we want to get to and how we will get there
5. Grouping of these ideas into common themes
6. Selection of top 2 things to concentrate on as we finished the release
   

Initially, there were a lot of looks of disbelief and a few chuckles as the retrospective was introduced.  After all, it is a little unusual (but not wrong!) for an engineering team to focus positive emotions outwardly.  But it really didn't take long for people to throw themselves into it.  A lot of the thank you notes focused on effort people put into the iteration.  My favourite when something like this:

Dear _______,

Thanks for always being there to review my code even when you were very busy.

Your pal, _______

From that point on, the team went from positive to positive.  A great dynamic was built as one person's ideas quickly built upon others.  By the time we started the grouping exercise, even the quietest person was taking a leading role and stepping up for their turn with the stickies on the wall.