by Chantal Jenoure
We can all admit that hosting a retro at the end of every sprint, leans a team towards continuous improvement and growth. But let’s be honest, if we’re not careful, after a while retrospectives can get very monotonous and uninteresting. Sometimes, even changing the venue, can do so much and no more to make your retro time, a fun, while still useful, time spent together as a team. 
When I was still very new to the space, my agile coach told me (before my official first day on the job) that you will be all things to your team - mother, nurse, counsellor, cheerleader. I have also realised that I can use my retro time with the team to become a vibes master… pushing any dark clouds away and welcoming/ushering in blue skies on a sunny day. The quicker I found other activities to unearth the same results as the typical 3Ws retro (“what went well, what didn’t go so well and what do we definitely need to improve on), retros became a highlight of our week.
Here are three handy retro activities that will do the trick!
Draw the Iteration (https://retromat.org/en/?id=31). Here’s a light way to start getting over a tough or even failed sprint. What makes this retro activity most hilarious is the combination of interpreting a non-artist’s impression of the sprint. We recently had a failed sprint simply because of APIs being unavailable in our dev environment and once we did this activity, we had everyone laughing about the different interpretations of how the sprint went.
Story Oscars (https://retromat.org/en/?id=54) can be used as an activity to start gathering data, as you work towards identifying action items. It never disappoints in being a source of endless laughter, as it gives your team an outlet to express how they felt about the stories they worked on. Categorising the stories into best, annoying or whatever other category your team chooses, spurs hearty discussions about how we can get more stories in the best categories and avoid them being annoying. Interestingly, you will find, that a story may be categorised as best, simply, because it fully met the definition of ready; and another may have been annoying because of unknowns or external dependencies. Nonetheless, learnings from both are documented to see how the best - whatever made them the best or annoying - are replicated or avoided, respectively.
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Round of appreciation - a simpler take on Shower of Appreciation (https://retromat.org/en/?id=34) allows for your team members to be unexpectedly reminded that they are special and add colour to the team. I usually ask my team to express their appreciation to the team member to their left or right; and we go around the room in that direction. It always changes the atmosphere from being monotonous to personal; and sometimes after a difficult sprint, hearing that you are appreciated always seems to warm the heart and balm the soul.
via GIPHY
What are your go-to activities to spice up your retro?
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