Agile Mentors Podcast

Join Brian Milner and guest co-host Scott Dunn as they discuss why the retrospective is an important part of agile and how to use this meeting to help teams to improve continuously.

Overview

In this episode, Brian Milner is joined by guest co-host Scott Dunn, Certified Enterprise Coach and Scrum Trainer, to get insights into delivering retrospective sessions that energize and inform the whole team — while ensuring they are effective at meeting goals.

A sprint retrospective is a great way for teams to reflect on the previous sprint but this meeting can become stale if you sleepwalk your way through the same agenda every time. Brian and Scott discuss the Scrum Master’s responsibility to take ownership of the retrospective and the importance of developing a toolkit of techniques that you can use and adapt to engage and motivate your teams.

There are many great retrospective ideas in the Agile community, including variations and additions on the basic questions and creative facilitation techniques. Sharing their experiences and offering advice to Scrum Masters on how to empower their teams, drive participation and unlock creativity, Brian and Scott discuss the importance of innovation and how to establish a culture of trust and accomplishment to maximize the value of this meeting.

Listen now to discover:

·       00:03:00 - Why Scrum Masters need to establish safety for retrospectives to work

·       00:07:00 - How to structure a retrospective to motivate teams

·       00:09:00 - Why it is not the Scrum Master’s responsibility to resolve all impediments

·       00:11:00 - How to empower your team to have more agency over the work and make a difference as team members

·       00:13:30 - Why Scrum Masters need to take ownership of the retrospective

·       00:19:00 - Why you need to change up your retrospective to engage your team

·       00:19:30 - How to conduct fun and engaging retrospectives

·       00:23:58 - How to influence and shape your team’s culture

·       00:26:10 - How to get value from a retrospective with an introverted team

References and resources mentioned in the show

·       Strengths-based Leadership - Gallup

·       Training from the Back of the Room – Sharon Bowman

·       Marcus Buckingham

·       Agile Retrospectives - Making Good Teams Great - Esther Derby and Diana Larson

Want to get involved?

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This episode’s presenters are:

Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He’s passionate about making a difference in people’s day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work.

Scott Dunn is a Certified Enterprise Coach and Certified Scrum Trainer with more than 20 years of experience in management, project management (PMP), engagement management, and software development (MCSD). He is passionate about strengths-based teams and a solutions-based approach to people and organizational issues.