We ran a great session recently where we were looking at problems facing two specific disciplines. Without going into the problem specifics, we used our own variation on the Agile Speed Dating retrospective, as follows:
- Room set up with individual tables with 2 chairs facing each other (speed dating style)
- Group split into two with one discipline representative one side of table, discipline two on the other
- Each person had 5 minutes to think about the subject and using a blank white plain index card:
- on one side write up to 5 words describing a problem, or multiple problems
- on the other side draw a picture to summarise the problem
- Each person was also given a coloured index card to write notes
- Each pair then had 5 minutes to discuss the problem with their partner and try to come up with solutions. Half way through the pair swapped so they were discussing the other person’s issue.
- A bell sounded every 5 minutes and discipline one moved one table anti-clockwise so they were meeting a new partner
- This process was repeated 6 times.
- Everybody was then asked to write the person who identified most with their problem on their index card – thereby creating a match.
- In the final 20 minutes each person had a minute to explain who they matched with, what their problem was, and the best solution they had come up with.
- All the issues/solutions were written on a flipchart
- Finally just before leaving each person was given 3 votes to identify the action they thought was the most important. Votes were cast by marking with a pen a dot against the appropriate action.
Time: the retro took exactly one hour
Tips:
- avoid using different coloured cards as it caused a bit of confusion during the explanation
- we had 20 participants and managed to hear from everybody – however that did mean each person had no more than one minute to talk in front of the group
- some people were confused as to whether they were limited to 1 problem or whether they could write 5 problems. In the event we allowed best but probably best to limit to 1 problem in future