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The next tip for running a retrospective like a pro is to incorporate the Prime Directive Retrospective. The Prime Directive is simply a statement read by the scrum master about creating expectations for the meeting.
The statement reads, "Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what was known at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand."
Too often, retrospectives turn into finger-pointing and blaming people for what went wrong. With this softer approach, especially if you're anticipating walking into a heated meeting, you can calm everyone down and keep the conversation about working together and moving forward.
Team members are human and seldom have a good day every day. By keeping the retrospective positive, the team can take action to improve in the future by preventing or mitigating what went wrong.
As a coach, McFadyen says that if the team wants to blame anyone, they can blame him since he's not bothered by those comments and protects team members from harm.
McFadyen says he often puts the Prime Directive statement on the screen or wall, then they read it and sit with it for a few minutes. The Prime Directive is also something that you can add to your team working agreement.
Key Takeaways:
- The Prime Directive Retrospective helps to set the context and tone of the meeting
- The retrospective is about people
- Stop blaming people if something goes wrong
- Work on solving or preventing problems
- Focus on how you improve as a team
Need to watch any of the other videos in the series? Find the links below!