Questions in a Retrospective

One of the reasons that there are so many "recipes" for retrospectives available is to broaden participants' horizons beyond just the what went well/poorly binary view of the world.

I really appreciate the great work Chris Stone has done in imagining and creating numerous Miro-based retrospective templates on all kinds of themes. For a short to medium duration project, using those, you might never have the same retro twice!

Kiron

These questions; "what could we do better?", and "what went wrong?' suggest project failure to some extent. A true 'lessons learned' process includes "what did we do right?" and "how can we repeat?".

I also find that the wrong people manage these sessions and ask these questions - usually upper management querying the working stiffs. It comes across as 'armchair quarterbacks' revisiting the play after the action rather than making the call in real time.

Although the intent may be to improve future performance in many cases it instills resentment and de-motivates. On the next project people will be look over their backs (protecting their butts) rather than applying the skills as best they can.

As you can tell I am a bit wary of these retrospectives - not saying they don't have value but need to be managed by competent personnel.

I think the reason people ask the latter than the former is that if the former asked, the others in the room might get defensive. The former, on the other hand, might be perceived as a positive way of putting it and hence help the group to open up for a discussion.

I also feel that in some cases, it is semantic and depends on the culture of the country.

"What did you do wrong?" could be considered accusatory.
"What went wrong?" provides the opportunity to shift blame and avoid accountability.
"What should be done differently next time?" assumes that doing something different would lead to a different outcome.

Each question has its place, but are any of them the best questions to ask?

There is an argument for using Appreciative Inquiry, focusing on the positive and building on strengths, in retrospectives, but you need more than AI because, sometimes, you have to address failure. You have to examine the root cause and failed steps in order to prevent or minimize the potential for repeating the failure.

Rather than asking which question is better, ask how you can create an organization where failure is seen as an opportunity to learn. Create a shared vision for how to learn and deliver value quickly. Create an environment where the team feels safe asking hard questions in order to learn and reduce the potential for future failures; where nobody is afraid to raise their hand and say, "This is how I messed up and how I will avoid it in the future." Then keep them accountable to their commitments and recognize their successes, making the transition from learning from failure to appreciative inquiry.