JO’s Newsletter

Hello, and welcome to newsletter no. 2. People often ask me how to encourage participation in retrospectives, so in this issue, I will discuss three techniques and share some stories of my best and worst retros and what I learned from them.

Remember, I’d love to hear from you, so feel free to share what you want to learn and what will improve your retrospectives.

What's in this newsletter

• Encouraging Participation ✍🏾

  • Identifying who wants to be there - EVPS. ꠫

  • Creating Working agreements 📜

  • Using the right tools 🧰

• Stories 📖

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• Next Issue

Encouraging Participation ✍🏾

There are many different ways to encourage participation in a retrospective. I’m going to share three here that you can start to use to see how participation improves. Something to think about is that while it’s important to make space for people to participate and to encourage it, it’s not helpful to force it. Some people might not have anything to say or add, and that is also okay.

Identifying who wants to be there - EVPS. ꠫

For about two years, I worked with a great team of engineers, serving as their Scrum Master. Retrospectives were always my favourite event. When I first started working with the team, I sensed that not everyone enjoyed retrospectives and that some considered them to be a waste of time. I wanted to address this issue, so I introduced an exercise called EVPS. For several months, I began many of our retrospectives with this exercise.

During the EVPS exercise, I gave each participant the same colour sticky note and asked them to write one letter: E, V, P, or S. E represented "explorer" for those eager to explore ways to improve the team. S represented "shopper" for those seeking improvement ideas but maybe not having any of their own to contribute. V represented "vacationer" for those treating the event as a break from their work. P represented "prisoner" for those who felt obligated to be there.

I asked everyone to write a letter on a sticky note and fold it up. After collecting all the notes, I drew a matrix on the whiteboard and plotted the results. I made it clear that I was only collecting data and would not make any comments. The only comment I made was that prisoners who wanted to leave could, but no one ever left, so my "prisoners" became more like "vacationers."

When I started with the team, I had one "explorer," two "shoppers," three "vacationers," and two "prisoners." As I focused on getting good results, having fun, and constantly improving our work, the dynamic shifted to 3 explorers, three shoppers, and two vacationers. Occasionally, I would have a "prisoner" again, depending on the team's circumstances.

Determining who is in the room and their energy levels and participation is a good way to encourage involvement. Allowing those uninterested to leave gives them agency, and if they stay, they have made a choice. Then, it's important to ensure that the retrospectives have value. This approach can also be used to measure improvement over time.

Creating Working agreements 📜

I usually spend the first 5-7 minutes of a meeting creating working agreements. This helps me to understand what's important for the participants, how they prefer to participate, and what they value. I ask the group about how we should interact with each other, which often leads to insightful responses. As a Scrum Master, I pay attention to what I hear and listen for what’s not being said. When respect is mentioned, I delve deeper to understand what it means to each individual. It often means something different to different people. For some, it is not interrupting; for others, it is active listening, and for others, feeling valued. Knowing what’s important to people helps me facilitate more effectively. I also ask for permission to keep the team on track and inquire about how to alert them if they're veering off course.

Establishing working agreements is the first step in creating a safe environment and promoting active participation. When individuals understand how and when to participate, they are more likely to engage. Additionally, I reiterate that the meeting belongs to the team, not me. I am there to facilitate, and the team members are responsible for the content and outcomes. This encourages them to take ownership of the event.

Using the right tools 🧰

Different people have different ways of participating and different styles of communicating. Something to remember as you plan your retrospectives and choose activities is that you want to make space for these. Some people need to talk to think, and some people need to think first. I make space for people to think and write and then for the talking to happen as people share. Then, I know I need to make space for additional thinking for those who have had new input to process that input. So, mixing talking and silence is helpful. Using pairs or small groups can also be helpful. I might offer a gather data exercise that has two options: one to talk with a partner and make notes, and one to sit in silence and make notes. That way, I’m creating options for everyone.

Some group sense-making needs discussion, so it’s important to have space for discussion during the generate insights stage. As a facilitator, it’s your job here to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to share. One of the teams I facilitate has someone who is very much an outloud thinker, and so every time they want to think about a new piece of information that has been shared, they need to talk about it. This means that they take up lots of space in the conversation and also can often guide the direction of the conversation. As a facilitator in that team, I might say, “We have heard from the top of the table; let's hear a bit more from the bottom of the table”, or I might use smaller groups so everyone gets to share or I might use something like rounds from Nancy Kline.

In one team, I was a Scrum Master for one of the people in the team who hardly ever contributed to the retro. I would ask the team for at least one sticky per person, and this person would often only ever contribute one sticky. I then planned a retro where everyone had to write. The whole retro was a written retro. All of a sudden, I was dealing with a totally different person. He loved it, engaged deeply and contributed more than he ever had. I realised that writing was a preferred method of communication for him and that

These three ideas are some of the things that I do to encourage participation in my retrospectives. There are many others. Maybe you want to share some of your ideas, and I can publish them for others, or maybe you have a specific issue that you would like me to talk about. Feel free to get in touch and share what most interests you.

Stories 📖

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Feel free to share this newsletter with others who might find value. You can also check out BuyMeA Coffee, where I have shared additional resources and will keep adding things.

Next Issue

In the next newsletter, I will unpack a few helpful facilitation techniques. I would also love to hear what you want to know about. So get in touch with me [email protected] and share what you want me to talk about.