Most retrospectives are a waste of time. People go through the motions. They feel like a performance rather than a path to improvement.
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I once saw a team of 40 people map every detail out on giant whiteboards. One or two voices dominated the room while everyone else paid lip service. No one felt heard and nothing actually changed.
The best retrospectives are not "rituals." They are natural conversations.
They happen in small groups of people that work together. There are no managers in the room and you do not need sticky notes or complex frameworks. You just need to ask two questions. What went well? What could be better?
A real retrospective gives a team a sense of agency. I saw one small team realize they were failing because they were being used as a training vehicle for every new hire. They took that insight to management and won the right to control their own team membership. They went from frustration to euphoria because they finally had a sense of control.
Stop calling them agile retrospectives or post mortems. Just start talking about the real stuff.
Join me at BoS Europe: April 13 to 14
I am heading to Cambridge next week to speak about the shift from ticket manager to builder. Building high agency teams requires a "no bullshit" culture. If you are a founder or leader looking for practical action I hope to see you there.
Bonus: Use my speaker code boseu26spkr9sec for a discount.