A couple of simple check-in activities for retro

A couple of simple check-in activities for retro

Structure of retrospective

How to run good retrospective? How to structure it in a good way? What to do to make people feeling that the time of retro session was spent in a good, productive way? And how to make changes, improvements from retrospective possible?
There are many approaches to running retrospectives. There is certainly group of people who jump straight away to the main point - discuss last sprint, release, project, insights about it and proposed improvements. Others prefer to use more structured approach. 
There are many structures which will work well. Majority of them has the following common points in agenda:

  1. Setting the stage - introduction to retrospective, providing a context, setting up goal for session. In this part we often also review working agreements and prime directive for retro. It's important to take care of creating open and comfortable atmosphere for participants. This part also may contain some energizing and check-in activities.
  2. Main course - the "meat" of retrospective. Contains gathering information and feelings from the team, generating insights and working on what to do, what improvements do we need and how to make them happen.
  3. Check-out / departure - last point in agenda, reflection and feedback on retrospective session and learning we made during this session
In this article I would like to show you several simple (still interesting) check-in activities which for sure will help in your retrospectives. 

What are check-in activities and why I need it?

Check-in activities are part of setting the stage point in agenda. They play important role in checking and creating comfortable environment for the team before we start talking about the "meat". By doing them you can answer the questions how people feel regarding given context and generally, toward the meeting. Besides that, these activities help people to put aside their concerns and judgement and focus on topic at hand.
Check-in activities are usually very short, you can treat them as 'amuse-bouche', one-bite dishes before the main course. They work for participants - to make them feel more comfortable before next part, and for you - to give you a sense about initial feeling and engagement of participants. 

Interesting tools

One word

Purpose and description
One word activity is super simple check-in. It gives the people possibility to share their feelings from the very start. It's good not only because it wakes people up, but also because you are able to recognize participant's feeling. 

What do I need?

  • couple of minutes (around 5 depending on groups size)
  • pens and sticky notes
  • whiteboard or flip chart 

How to run it?

  1. Ask all participants to describe their feelings in context of upcoming activity in form of one work on a sticky note
  2. Everyone puts their notes on whiteboard and reads it out loud
  3. Optionally you can group similar words on the board

Weather report

Purpose and description
It's very simple activity - takes several minutes and enable you to get the initial thought of what is people's reception regarding last iteration.

What do I need?
  • whiteboard or flip chart
  • pens
  • 2 - 3 minutes
How to run it?

  1. Draw on whiteboard - sun, cloud, rain and storm
  2. Ask people to put a mark next to the drawing representing how they feel about last sprint, release, project - depending what is the context of your discussion

Safety check

Purpose and description
Safety check activity it's quick and easy way to measure what level of participation you can expect from retrospective participants

What do I need?
  • couple of minutes (around 5-7 depending on groups size)
  • pens and sticky notes
  • whiteboard or flip chart 
How to run it?

  1. Explain a scale to participants
    • 5 - no problem, I will talk about everything
    • 4 - I will talk about almost anything; a few things might be hard
    • 3 - I will talk about some things, but others will be hard to say
    • 2 - I'm not going to say much, I will let others to bring up issues
    • 1 - I will smile, claim everything is great and agree with managers
  2. Ask people to choose number representing their attitude the best and write it down on sticky note (make sure it's taken anonymously - using the same card color and pen)
  3. Collect cards from participant (use some box or hat to keep it anonymous)
  4. Put cards on whiteboard and group them
  5. Discuss the results and acknowledge people willingness to participate


ESVP

Purpose and description
ESVP stands for Explorer, Shopper, Vacationer, Prisoner. This activity will help you to get to know people approach to upcoming activities. 

What do I need?
  • around 5 minutes
  • pens and sticky notes
  • whiteboard or flip chart 

How to run it?

  1. Split whiteboard into four parts each marked with name: Explorer, Shopper, Vacationer, Prisoner - you can help yourself and the team with nice and funny pictures
  2. Explain each 'role' to participants
    • Explorers - are keen on exploring and discussing insights and new ideas. They want to do as much learning as possible during the session
    • Shoppers - will take a look at available information and will be happy to take some idea home
    • Vacationers - are not particularly interested in topics discussed on retrospective but are happy to have some time away from daily toil
    • Prisoners - feel like in prison, like they were force to attend, they would prefer to be somewhere else
  3. Ask participants to write a letter (E, S, V or P) on a sticky note
  4. Collect notes and attach to whiteboard
  5. Discuss what the results mean for the group

Anonymous note

Purpose and description
Have you ever participated in retrospective when facilitator asks who wrote that note and nobody answers? Or when facilitator asks to read a note out loud but person was not aware that he or she will be asked to do so (participant counted on placing note on the board anonymously)? These are really unpleasant situations. Anonymous note activity will help you to avoid such situations by identifying if there is any problem with sharing notes personally. If you find out that someone is against reading his or her notes you need to abandon activity in which participants need to read a note out loud. Sometimes people want to bring up a point but not necessarily want to start a discussion about it. This activity will enable participants to signal their intention. 

What do I need?
  • around 5 minutes
  • pens and sticky notes
  • whiteboard or flip chart 

How to run it?

  1. Prepare a whiteboard with sentence: "Are you ok reading your notes out loud?"
  2. Explain the purpose of this activity - that in following activity you would like to ask them to read their notes and you want to check if everybody is comfortable with this
  3. Ask participants to write on sticky notes "Y" (or "yes"), if they are comfortable with reading their points, or "N" ("no") if they are not comfortable
  4. Collect the cards anonymously and place on the board
  5. Discuss results and agree next steps

What next?

Presented activities are simplest ones I came across but still can give you interesting information before you start with main course of retrospective. I hope you will be able to improve engagement and participation in your retros by using them. Enjoy!

References

Esther Derby, Diana Larsen, Agile Retrospectives, Making Good Teams Great
Paulo Caroli, Taina Caetano, FunRetrospectives

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