Retrospectives: Something That Should Be Done Right but Often Goes Wrong Source

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With the rise of internet jargon, the term "retrospective" has become increasingly common. However, whenever it is mentioned, it often carries a tone of mockery. Indeed, retrospectives in actual work settings often leave us with a negative impression. For employees, retrospectives mean preparing a large amount of data, information, and polished PowerPoint presentations—a task with unclear objectives but a heavy workload. For bosses, setting aside dedicated time to listen doesn’t always yield useful insights or provide guidance for the company’s future.

What we dislike is not the retrospective itself, but the way information sharing is packaged as a retrospective, thereby increasing workload and communication costs without delivering tangible results. However, we should also recognize that companies that use retrospectives effectively can continuously improve employees’ cognitive and decision-making abilities. The upper limit of a company’s capabilities depends on the upper limit of its employees’ abilities, and retrospectives are an important tool for developing these capabilities.

Therefore, it’s necessary to re-examine retrospectives and approach them correctly by focusing on the following three key points.

1.  Setting the Right Retrospective Goals

When it comes to retrospective goals, there are several common pitfalls. First, a boss looks at the upward trend of an AI index and asks the project manager, "How is our AI project progressing? Let’s do a retrospective." This is actually just a project progress update. Second, after completing a large cross-border collaboration project, the project manager says, "Let’s do a retrospective on this project." This is more like a project summary or review. Third, after losing a major client due to poor service, the boss calls all department heads and says, "We need to do a retrospective on this." In this case, the retrospective is likely to turn into a blame game.

Although retrospectives are often triggered by mistakes or failures, their purpose is not to assign blame or identify the causes of failure. Instead, the goal is to dig deeper and uncover the underlying beliefs that led to those decisions. The causes of failure rarely repeat, but stubborn beliefs can become persistent obstacles to growth. The scary part is that we often stop at surface-level analysis, satisfied with identifying the cause, while ignoring the "black rhino" of biased beliefs.

The psychological concept of the "ABC Model of Emotion" explains this idea. "A" refers to the event, "B" to the belief, and "C" to the emotion and action. When an event occurs, it doesn’t directly trigger emotions or actions; rather, it depends on how you interpret it. The same event can bring joy to some and sorrow to others, all due to differences in beliefs.

Organizational culture, hierarchy design, responsibility allocation, performance incentives, and other factors all influence how each role within an organization perceives an event. Every retrospective is an opportunity to examine whether the beliefs of each role align with the organization’s needs. For example, conflicts between business and product teams often arise because the business team believes that launching a product means their KPI is achieved, while the product team believes they are responsible for the product’s effectiveness. If the product isn’t being used after launch, the business team’s demands should be deprioritized. The organization’s role isn’t to solve the problem at hand but to clarify how these beliefs should be balanced.

The first step in a retrospective is to set the right goal: to improve beliefs. The goal is to explore what beliefs led to the current situation and then decide whether to encourage, suppress, or leave those beliefs unchanged. Whether for individuals or organizations, what you encourage is what you will get.

2. Focusing on the Right Retrospective Subject

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Since the goal is to improve beliefs, the subject of the retrospective shouldn’t be the outcome. When focusing on outcomes, the common approach is to present beautiful charts showcasing results, reviewing goals, assessing gaps, and then reverse-engineering the reasons and solutions.

The transition from "why" to "how" should be the most critical part, but it often relies solely on the writer’s perspective. Their abilities, viewpoint, and information can lead to unreliable conclusions, yet others in the retrospective meeting lack the information to challenge these conclusions. The meeting then becomes a showcase of individual empiricism, which is the biggest problem with outcome-focused retrospectives.

So, what should we focus on if not outcomes? We should focus on the process. Break it down into every step, examining what actions were taken at each moment. Carefully review and document everything in writing, without spending time beautifying charts. Participants should have access to raw materials to evaluate each step and explore the underlying beliefs.

For example, if a serious online issue occurs, the development team should prepare retrospective materials as follows: a complete description of when the problem was discovered, what actions were taken every minute afterward, what checks and diagnostics were performed, what optimizations were made, and whether the issue was resolved after deployment. With such materials, the development lead has rich content to delve into why the team checked A instead of B, why action C didn’t work, and trace the thought process in specific scenarios to provide targeted coaching or process improvements.

As the author of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant said, "The key to success isn’t making the right decisions but avoiding the wrong ones." By reviewing each action, we can determine its effectiveness and eliminate ineffective solutions, bringing us closer to success.

3.  Creating the Right Retrospective Atmosphere

With the goal of improving beliefs and detailed process-focused materials, we must also create the right retrospective atmosphere. First, avoid conducting retrospectives too soon after an event. When a major incident has just occurred, information may not be fully collected, and emotions may run high. Those responsible may feel demoralized, while those affected may be outraged, leading to a less effective retrospective.

Second, during the retrospective, the facilitator should create a safe environment. In addition to the person leading the retrospective, a facilitator should be appointed to intervene when emotions flare or when the retrospective leader is under attack, steering the meeting toward neutral communication and calm problem-solving. The atmosphere of a retrospective should resemble a group of doctors calmly analyzing materials on an operating table, not actors dramatically performing emotions based on a script. This is challenging but essential for effective retrospectives.

For organizational retrospectives, the final outcome should result in group decisions, which are difficult to achieve without a neutral atmosphere. For personal retrospectives, you can place a toy in front of you to act as your facilitator. When you fall into extreme emotions or viewpoints, it can remind you to pull yourself back. In short, a proper retrospective is not a simple task, but it is a crucial step for the growth of both organizations and individuals.

By setting the right retrospective goals, focusing on the process, and creating the right atmosphere, we can truly draw strength and improve our cognitive abilities. Most importantly, we must translate retrospective findings into actionable plans, continuously adjusting and practicing to enhance organizational and individual efficiency and innovation.

In conclusion, retrospectives should not be a superficial formality but a genuine, all-hands effort to face problems and propose solutions. The retrospective process should encourage open and inclusive discussions. It’s not a one-time activity but should become a part of continuous improvement for organizations and individuals. Regular retrospectives can help identify issues in a timely manner, adjust strategies, and ensure the organization is always moving in the right direction. Finally, the right retrospective atmosphere also requires attention to feedback and follow-up. After the retrospective, clear responsibilities and action plans should be established, with progress tracked. For action plans that are not completed on time or fail to deliver results, timely adjustments and optimizations should be made. Only in this way can retrospectives truly fulfill their purpose, helping organizations and individuals grow and improve continuously.