Two new retrospective formats

I don’t really know, I have some kind of writing frenzy. A new theme yesterday, an article yesterday, another one today, probably others to follow during the week. A mental illness no doubt. Anyway, here are two retrospective formats that we’re going to try during this week (that we have tried, I’m amending the article).

The Bestiary of Tales and Legends

Like many people I’ve played role-playing games (RPG, Dungeons & Dragons, Celtic Legends, etc.), even live-action, I’ve read J.R.R Tolkien, George Martin or Andrzej Sapkowski, but also Asterix, or Thorgal or Jon le Chninkel. So here’s a framework for doing a retrospective with the bestiary of our tales and legends.

The druid: what are the ingredients of the magic potion? Naturally what were the ingredients that improved things during the observed time.

The elf: it’s all very well but it’s fragile, how and what do we consolidate, what do we solidify?

The dwarf: it’s a bit rough around the edges isn’t it? How and what do we soften? What do we refine?

The goblin: It slipped in surreptitiously, did you see it? What details crept in here and there that you’d like to make more visible ? What did you notice that nobody else noticed?

The quests completed during the observed time.

The feats accomplished during the observed time.

The trolls thrown to the wolves during the observed time.

The Questions Crowdfunding

[modification on April 22nd following agile raid 5]

The Questions Crowdfunding is the new name given to the retrospective Question Storming following the last raid where I was able to test it again.

Questions Crowdfunding/question storming is an adaptation of a tool from the remarkable “Change your questions, change your life” by Marilee G. Adams, which Valérie recommended to me a year ago. It’s a book I loved. Simple but devilishly effective. Since then I see life in learner and judger terms (I’ve undertaken to translate the learner path / Choice map poster for Fabrice, it’ll come one of these days).

First Round

Distribute as many coins (bills, tokens, etc.) as there are participants to each one. 7 tokens for 7 participants. Normally a team doesn’t exceed 8 people, so limit yourself to 8 otherwise. Am I clear? It’s a currency for buying the best questions. Then start a round-table. Everyone must ask a question out loud in turn. The question MUST NOT contain “you”, but rather “I, we”.

If the question seems relevant we buy it with our tokens (only one max per person per purchase). The purchase is validated if the sum of tokens is greater than or equal to two thirds of the group. Let’s say that if you are 7 and 5 people out of 7 buy the question, it’s retained, we put it aside. If the question isn’t retained everyone can take back their token, their bill. As soon as we reach 3 or 4 or 5 retained questions we move to the second round.

Participants will therefore want to buy: not too quickly to wait for the right question, but not too late so that there’s still enough money in the game to buy a question. It’s very nice to hear the “I’m buying!” as soon as a question goes “click” in the head (and to try to convince others to buy as well).

You must respect the turn order, and if a participant draws a blank, then we wait. The idea of Questions Crowdfunding is to bounce from question to question, without acrimony (hence the “I, we”). A pyramid of questions. I really like that.

Second Round

We display the selected questions. We ask everyone to place a sticker, post-it, with a simple word, that the question evoked for them, which they explain out loud to the others (so one post-it per question per person). Then naturally we do a dotvoting (everyone has buying power there too, let’s say 3 points) to select the point on which we’re going to try to improve or a positive aspect to propagate.

Marie-Anne Tests in Asia

The Gyshido and the Speedboat from Marie-Anne, our ambassador in Asia.

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And since yesterday (May 4th 2016), the retro “bestiary of tales and legends”.

With some dialogue (long live whatsapp) to clarify the fields:

MA: What do you mean by Trolls in this type of retro?
The things where you or someone would say: ohhhhh
MA: Like negative things? Things I could have done without?
Not necessarily. Provocations, outrageous things.
MA: And the dwarf? Doesn’t it come down to kind of the same thing as with the elf?
No it’s the opposite. The dwarf is rustic: it needs to be softened. A good thing that’s still rough around the edges that you’d need to refine during your stay. The elf is something great but still fragile, in balance, that you’d need to consolidate. To reproduce, for more certainty.
MA: Subtle. Thanks for the explanation!
MA: And the goblin is something to improve too or not necessarily?
No it’s a detail that you want to make more obvious. Highlight a small hidden thing.

The facebook account of Marie-Anne’s journey.