 The Circus Topic Most teams begin as a group of talented yet unfocused individuals. Just think of any of the famous teams you've seen on film or TV. They always seem to go through a process of working out how best to utilize each other's skills for the overall benefit of the team. The topic of this retrospective is to help a team to analyze skills and strengths in order to develop their capabilities and virtues, and ultimately boost performance. You'll need the following resources, several pieces of paper or a flip chart pad, some sticky notes and some marker pens, three juggling balls, some coloring pens, some photos of the faces of the team members, and a couple of decks of playing cards. Here's the hook. Roll up, roll up for the greatest retrospective on earth. Come and see the world's most diverse and talented performers develop their skills in a spectacle you'll never forget. As usual, feel free to get creative yourself and come up with an alternative. Explain that this retrospective is likely to take 90 minutes and will involve some writing on sticky notes, some working in pairs and small groups, and then consolidating as a group. There's a little bit of artwork involved as well. Events Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to our circus-themed retrospective. If you've ever been to the circus before, you will surely remember feeling excited and expecting to be wowed by a collection of impressive and talented performers. On several pieces of flip chart paper that you've stationed around the room, write and or draw each of the following talents in the centre. We have the bravery of the lion tamer. We have the humour of the clowns. The strength of the strongman. The resilience of the jugglers. The precision of the knife-throwers. The agility of the high trapeze. The creativity of the acrobats. And the balance of the unicyclist. Of course, you could ask the team for any other mainstream acts that interest them as well. Now, using sticky notes, the team are going to write down answers to the following question. What examples do we have of these talents in our team? We're looking for specific examples or events where the team have displayed those talents. For example, answers such as, Jeff broke the build three times in the same day may fall into the humour category, or accommodating a late change requested by the product owner may fall into the agility category. When a team member has an example written on a sticky note, ask them to add it to the appropriate talent. Give the team about 15 minutes to identify as many examples of these talents as they can. Next, we're going to ask team members to rate the team's current level of performance in each talent. Give each person cards from the decks so that everyone has cards ranging from 1 to 10, so that they can all provide a score. Taking each talent in turn, ask everyone to pick a card from 1 to 10 that indicates their view of the team's score for this talent. Ensure that everyone shows their vote at the same time in order to avoid anyone being influenced. Average out the scores and place the average score in one corner of the flip chart. Then move on to the next talent. Once all the talents have been scored, ask the team to silently reflect on the data they can see in front of them and to collect their own thoughts. Meaning. We now want to explore what these scores mean, both for the team themselves and for those around them. Ask the team to dot vote on the talent that they would like to explore further. Explain that this could be one of their strengths that they wish to expand further on or one of their weaknesses that they would like to address. It might even be one that they know the least about. Facilitate an exploration of the meaning of this talent with these questions. What impact is our current state having on us, on others? What would it mean for us to improve? Annotate the flip chart papers by writing down the reflections that the teams draw on the respective talents. Once the team have explored that talent, invite them to look at another one. You'll probably have time to look at about three in this retrospective. As facilitator, allow the team to focus on their interest areas as much as possible, but be careful that it doesn't become too focused on either strengths or weaknesses. Else. This optional aspect of the retrospective could be used as an introductory icebreaker activity or the hook for a variation on the existing retrospective or a supplementary part of this current retrospective structure. Explain to the team that if we view the project as a team performance, then we may wish to explore what else goes into that performance other than individual skill. This next activity is best placed in a large open space, without any chairs, tables or other obstacles in the way. Using the three juggling balls, ask the team to work out a system to throw the balls between the group according to the following rules. All three balls must always be in motion. All team members must always be in motion, and team members can only hold onto a ball for one second. This should create a mini juggling challenge for the group, which will inevitably involve some failure, lots of practice, and hopefully some fun too. After the team have mastered the task, or had enough, sit back down and ask the question, what else, other than individual skill, goes into a team performance like the one we just experienced? The themes we expect to come out here are those involving the environment, the team that we're working in, the conditions, the relationships, and the trust between people, among others. On a new piece of flip-chat paper, write down the following headings in three columns. Safety. What do we need in order to feel safe? Support. What support do we need? Surroundings. What environment will help us as a team? Note down what the team say, and then facilitate a discussion about what they need in their actual environment with respect to these aspects of team performance. Examples from this activity may include observations such as we need support from management when our initial estimates turn out to be wrong, or we need to be able to offer help to each other even when we think we don't need it. Decisions. A good circus has a good marketing campaign behind them. So now the team are going to create a poster for their next performance, which is, in fact, their next sprint or iteration. For this, make use of a flip-chat sheet or whiteboard where the team can stand and draw together. Hopefully the team will be familiar with what a circus poster looks like, but in any case, explain that the poster needs the following. The team name. If there is one, otherwise, invent one as part of the exercise. A strap line or slogan. Perhaps a quote from a press reviewer of future performance. The team need to imagine what the press would be saying about their team after their next performance. And some photos of the performers. You may wish to invite the team to consider the following questions. What makes us an attractive troop to be part of? What would make us a really attractive troop for new people to join? Once the poster is complete, ask the team to reflect on the output and propose two to three actions from the following question. What needs to be done to make this happen? Put particular emphasis on the future press release the team came up with. Agree onus for these actions before the retrospective completes.