How to Facilitate Great Project Retrospectives (cont.)

The Retrospective Facilitator

Great retrospective facilitators help teams address processes, practices and systems objectively in a climate that’s focused on learning and performance improvement rather than blame, scapegoating or political bias.

A skilled retrospective leader from outside the project team may often be in a better position to:

Create an environment of safety
Bring new energy and focus
Level the playing field
Ask the tough questions that really make a difference

Objective, neutral facilitation by an independent third party is often the most effective way to unleash breakthrough results. Yet at the same time, having a team member or manager facilitate retrospectives is preferable to not doing them at all.

Click here to download a powerpoint template you can use to conduct your next project retrospective.

Post-Project Reviews Alone Don’t Work

Waiting until the end of a project to do a post-project review is too late. By that time, the project may be ready for the scrap heap. People lack the motivation to innovate and improve. That’s because there’s not an immediate application for the problems they’re solving. Mid-project retrospectives lead to actionable improvements that can be immediately applied.

However sub-optimal, however, doing a post-project review alone is better than not doing one at all.

Transfer Improvements Across Projects

Innovations from project retrospectives can be shared and implemented across the project portfolio, creating a “multiplier effect” that enables the organization as a whole to continuously improve, reduce waste, and deliver faster across many projects at the same time.

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