Between the various teams and projects here, we do a lot of retrospectives. When hindsight is 20/20, looking back frequently is the only way to move forward on the best tracks. We want to know what’s worked really well so we can keep doing it, but we also want to know what didn’t work well, so we can change and improve. The retrospective removes the waste of going in the wrong direction while also providing opportunity for course correction.
In a couple weeks we will wrap 2017 with a year end company retrospective. Since these meetings are a bigger deal involving the whole company, we add a little to the standard retrospective format to make sure we focus on the things that are the most important to the most people, in priority order. Last August, for example, together we generated topics written on stickies for discussion. We stuck those on a “To Be Discussed” section of a white board and talked about what each one meant, combining duplicates. Then we made 3 votes each to determine which topics were the most relevant to everyone and set out discussing them in the order of most votes.
We discussed everything from reaching new audiences with our work to our company’s financial health; from working better together to working better with clients. We finished with action items for evolving a more cross-functional team that is closer with its customers. This next company day, we will again measure our progress and adjust direction.
We even have some action items for things to try differently with the meeting this time around, such as:
- Do more fun and “mindless” things together
- Calisthenics in the afternoon
- Lunch together, not separately
It will be a great meeting, followed immediately by our annual Holiday Party, open to the public. Join us!
