The Never Have We Ever Retrospective
Another new playful retrospective for you folks. This one centred around the game "Never Have I Ever". Please note, drinking is encouraged during this retro, but isn't mandatory!
Use this retro to be a bit vulnerable with your team, get some elephants in the room discussed and most importantly, to make "Never Will We Ever" commitments for how we'll improve in the future.
Thank you to those who submitted ideas for the "Never Have We Ever" cards.
Access the Miro template below, plug & play into your own instances and let me know how you get on!
How it works?
𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗰𝗲:
Share a personal "Never Have I ever" statement by adding it to the Post-Its. Participants then share whether they've done the thing by moving the virtual beer icons to the statement (or by sipping their drink!)
Select your cards
Navigate to the card selection frame and choose from the range of "Never have we ever" statements available. I recommend cards are chosen in one of three ways;
- Either allow each participant to the retro to choose one card each
- Use the "Never have we ever" dot vote icons to choose the 5 most desired cards. Give people 3 votes each.
- OR use the blank cards at the bottom to create your own statements!
Note that you don't have to complete all of the statements in a single timebox. There are plenty for future retros
Generate insights
With the cards selected, have someone read out the statement and then set a timer for 3-5 mins. In that time, individuals will share responses either positive or negative relating to that statement. As an example;
"Never have we ever - Skipped a retro"
Responses could include;
- "We regularly make time for retros"
- "We've gotten into a habit of missing these, we're too busy"
- "We miss the odd retro but that's ok from my perspective"
Have an open discussion about the responses if needed & proceed to the "Never Will We Ever" commitments
Never Will We Ever
With the statements discussed and insights generated, encourage the team to make commitments for the future by creating "Never Will We Ever" statements. Using the above example, a team might commit to
"Never will we ever go more than a month without holding a retro
Top tip - Try to make these actionable, realistic and small enough to get started with
Rate the retro:
Inspect & Adapt the retro itself by rating how much value it brought you & the team using the fist of five scale. Retros themselves should also be subject to continuous improvement.