Have you ever had that moment where you look back and think to yourself; well, that happened and I wouldn’t do that again.
Have you replayed a conversation in your head, reflected on a decision you made or the path you choose and thought gee if I had my time again… I would be choosing different words, making a different call or turning in another direction.
Pretty sure we all have, so what is the value of looking back before we move forward and how do we make it a proactive exercise rather than beating ourselves up? How do we get our teams to look back and leap forward?
Firstly, we have to allocate regular time and get good at how we use that time productively. This might be a fortnightly, monthly or quarterly exercise for us as individuals or for our Teams. Whether we call it a ‘retro’, ‘team meeting’, or simply put a ‘do not disturb’ in the calendar.
The key is in consistency and keeping the conversation focused on what you can take away from what has occurred.
One of my favorite exercises for retrospective dialogue is the ‘rose, bud, thorn’ format. Framing up retrospective sessions around the below points makes sure that you leave your reflection with tangible areas of focus or learning.
‘The Rose’
This is our chance to start with all the sweetest smelling bits. These are the moments or achievements that when we look back really brightened things up, they are the pops of colour that came in and gave us joy. Starting with the ‘rose’ or best bits ensures that we are capturing the things that we need to keep doing. It makes certain that we don’t forget to acknowledge that even in the darkest gardens, you can still find something flowering. It keeps the positive learning front of mind and helps us hold motivation to continue with the good things. It also means that we won’t stop doing something that brings us joy without realising.
‘The Bud’
The next part is about potential. It is about looking back and saying what opportunity for change or improvement has occurred. Is there an idea or concept that if we pause for a moment to consider it might turn into something great. The concept of the ‘bud’ is about empowering proactive solutioning. It gives license for us to consider the possibilities beyond our business as usual (BAU) or every day.
In saying that, we know that not all buds are best for the overall plant – sometimes when we consider the ‘bud’ fully, looking at it from all angles or perspectives we might discover that it’s potential is not what we first thought. However, we can only know that once we have fully considered it in the first place. It will be okay to prune a smaller ‘bud’ and allow other ‘buds’ or our primary ‘Roses’ to fully bloom. The main point to remember is that without the buds we aren’t getting any roses of any colour.
‘The Thorn’
For a lot of us when we look back, this is the one that we can identify the quickest. It is the one that we tend to carry in our side longer than we should. The idea of the exercise is to ensure that we are not walking around allowing the giant thorn in our side to fester. We need to pull the thorn out, sit it on the table and think about what we can learnt from it. Do we need to wear some gloves next time we head out to the garden? How do we remove the thorns so we can really enjoy the roses. This part requires us to take the time to acknowledge how much pain this thorn is really causing, how is it impacting us and how we can solve for it. It might be that you have many small conflicting thorns, and you will have to vote on which one gets sorted first, or what the best solution is. Or you might come to see that you have one big thorn that is feeding lots of other little issues. You might need to lay it on the table and say… I am not sure what to do to solve for this right now but I am aware of it and will wrap some care around it for now and try and find some buds to solve for it.
Ultimately, there is value in hindsight but you know what they say ‘Practice makes Perfect’ so getting good at finding the value in the retrospective is critical. Getting good at identifying your ‘roses’ ‘buds’ and ‘thorns’ takes time. The more you focus on your retrospective moments or meetings, the more you get out of them. We know that sometimes introducing a new way or keeping people focused in ways to look back to move forward, can be challenging.
Facilitating first introductions into ‘Retrospective Meetings’, sharing the value of this exercise and empowering teams to use it independently, is the kind of work that we really enjoy. If you need help taking your ‘Roses’, ‘Buds’ and ‘Thorns’ to a vote and then turning them into action items with accountabilities, feel free to reach out to me.
Is it time you considered what you have learnt in hindsight? Get your online/ physical whiteboard, butchers’ paper and pens or post it notes ready and get the most out of it.
I personally feel like we could all use more bunches of Roses in our lives.
