The key to agility = Continuous Improvement

Retrospection is the key to continuous improvement 🔑

Do any of these sound familiar folks?

'We're too busy to do retrospectives'

'Nothing ever changes around here anyway'

'We do retrospectives, they happen every few months'

𝗢𝗿

'Who wants to change?' - Everyone puts their hand up

'Who wants to be changed?' - Silence.

I'm sure many of us have faced the above scenarios in some capacity.

The challenge? 🏔

Without retrospection, without inspecting & adapting, we aren't improving. We blindly pursue our current trajectory without the feedback loops built in that enable us to course correct.

This can lead to;

- Waste & Rework

- Resentment & Frustration building up

- Missed opportunities

- A lack of learning

So what options are there?

- 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 - encourage the team to commit to just 20 mins per two weeks where they check in with one another. One question only. "What is the most important thing for us to address about how we work?"

- 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼-𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘀 - At daily standups, have teams answer an additional question centred around continuous improvement, don't just wait for a pre-defined retrospective timebox to improve. Build continuous improvement into the fabric of how your team works

- 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 - A 1% improvement every day compounds and grows rapidly. They don't need to fix everything, or make major whole sale changes. Ask 'What small change could we make in the next few weeks that would improve us'?

How do you handle these scenarios? How do you help teams & organisations make time for continuous improvement?