4 Key Questions to Retro for the Win.

When you hear the word Retro you are most probably thinking something like Elvis, Beehive haircuts, Mission Brown paint colour. That is not what this is about.

Tell me .. do you think Self Improvement is something that can and should be done as a high priority, with focus and intent? Isn't Self Improvement the one thing that everyone strives for, to be better, to earn more, to love more, to be more generous, to achieve more.

How are you doing with your Self Improvement? How is your child going with that? Is it a purposeful, meaningful activity that is a tight part of your every day activity?

​The Retro.

When I say Retro, I mean it as a "Retrospective" .. an activity where you take a moment to reflect on something, assess the good and bad, what went right and wrong.

Who does Retro?
A retro is commonly used as a tool in Business - typically for 'Agile' teams that are working together on a project. A Retro is used to periodically stop, assess your work, your results, your team dynamics, the quality of the work, the happiness of the team/sponsor/customer. The actions that come out of a Retro is supposed to improve the quality of the work, the quality of the result, the happiness of the team etc. By doing Retros quite often (every 2 to 3 weeks, after something is delivered) you build into your practice a feedback loop that should continually help to improve every aspect of the work.

Why do a Retro?
Its so often quoted that I think we tend to just gloss over it now, but if you continue to do things exactly the same way then you are likely to just repeat the same mistakes and achieve pretty much the same outcome. A retro is a chance to stop, assess, congratulate and celebrate the good stuff, modify the bad stuff, take note of things that we are unsure about.

This is really the very essence of self improvement. If you don't stop and take stock, adjust your course, consciously try and do things a little better, stop doing things that arent working, then what chance have you got of achieving the most you can?

How to do a Retro?
The four key questions doing a retro?
- What went Right
- What went Wrong
- What should I do Differently
- What Puzzles me

Some Guiding questions to help your thinking.

• What helps you to be successful?
  
• Where and when did it go wrong?
  
• What do you expect, from who?
  
• Which tools or techniques proved to be useful? Which not?
  
• What is you biggest impediment?
  
• If you could change 1 thing, what would it be?
  
• What caused the problems that you had?
  
• What’s keeping you awake at night?
  
• Which things went smoothly? Which didn’t?
  
• Why did you do it like this?
  
• Why did this (or didn’t this) work for you?
  
• Why do you consider something to be important?
  
• Why do you feel this way?
  
• Why did you decide to work on this?
  

Steps:

• Write down your Retro on Paper, or in an electronic file. You can use something like Evernote
• Divide a piece of paper into four quadrants, write a key question in each of the squares.
• Use dot points to write your answers and thoughts into each square. 
• Answer any of the questions in any order.
• When you get stuck, use the Guiding questions to come up with insights
• Keep writing - even if you think you have nothing left, keep at it for at least five minutes. (5 minutes is not that long)

​
When should you do a Retro?
I would suggest the Retro should become part of your kids lives as soon as possible, and be used all the time.

• After any major activity
  • School assignment/test,
  • Sporting carnival,
  • Weekend away,
  • Social function (party etc)
• ​Use it to help write your Diary, to reflect on the day.
• You can make it a nightly activity, think about the day as you fall asleep. 

What to do with all your Retros?
After you finish a retro, review your answers. Resolve to take some action on one or more of the most important points that you think need attention.

Definitely review your Retros from time to time. The true power in a Retro is to look back and make sure you are doing the things you thought you needed to keep doing, Make sure you are changing the things that you identified that needed to be changed. Did you really make an effort to find out about the things that Puzzle you?

The more you look back, the more you will take on board - you will just make it a natural part of your day to truly turbo-charge your self improvement.

That is kind of what its all about? Right?

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