Retrospective Meeting with Mad/Sad/Glad Method

Tram Ho

A/ Retrospective for what

How long has it been since your team/department has been retrospecive. Since I learned about PM, going around asking the teams in the company, people often skip this meeting. Either way, just meet for 10′ – 15′ to quickly discuss the issue, or more tense, there will be controversy … then quickly end the meeting. Basically since working as Project Manager (PM), I quite like this type of meeting the most because I find it really useful for my team’s work and spirit. And also show the role of 1 PM / Scrum Master most clearly.

In short, the Retro meeting is the place where the team looks back, praises the successes, brings out the problems to dissect, speaks out their thoughts and problems to share and empathize with each other. The PM’s role in this meeting leads, empathizes, sees the problem, solves it, and brings the team together.

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B/ Mad / Sad / Glad Method (MSG)

Basically, there are usually no general guidelines for retro meetings. Each PM or team will find ways to exchange and improve each other in this type of meeting. I myself am a PM for Tech Product company, so I often have to join many teams, so I often find different ways or methods to apply to each team, depending on the nature and time of doing Retro.

This MSG method prompts members to record their feelings through MAD/SAD/GLAD states.

  • MAD: What, what process annoys you the most? Usually a process, system or individual that we need to change in the team
  • SAD: What makes you sad, what moment or event bothers you.? Usually an emotion, time or issue that makes the team feel sad or frustrated
  • GLAD: What makes you happy, makes you feel happy during the process of working together, what do you do well, what needs to be spread more? Usually a successful product, or application, or an outstanding individual who contributes to the team and needs to be commended.

Using MSG helps

  • Sharing emotions helps the team empathize and increase work morale
  • Gain important information and insight into how systems and processes affect the team’s mood
  • Suitable for measuring members’ emotions after a sprint/campaign or an event

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C/ Implementation steps

In this article, I will share the MSG format in the form of an offline meeting, in a fixed meeting room. About the online meeting, I see there is a support platform book, but I haven’t tried it yet so I don’t dare to share

C.1/ Preparation

C.1.1/ Instruments in the meeting

  • Board & pen: This meeting belongs to a brainstorming meeting, so a board and a pen will be needed for members to follow the content. Make sure the meeting room you book has a board and a pen
  • Paper notes & writing: I will need notes for all members. My experience is don’t save enough notes for members so they can open and write right away. Avoid waiting to borrow each other’s writing, sometimes you will forget that idea
  • Water: It sounds weird, but it’s necessary. You will need to talk a lot, don’t let yourself and the members get thirsty. And actually ordering water for the team is also a good idea. Believe me, people will feel better when they drink water

C.1.2/ Draw a picture on the board

Some suggestions on the internet are to print out pictures, but basically I like to draw even though I draw… pretty bad. Illustrating MSG in a fun way with the team is also an interesting insight of PM, it doesn’t need to be too beautiful as long as it’s close to the team.

Please include hashtags or suggestions for each MSG available on the board, that will be the keyword to help the team make that note

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C.2/ Getting Started

C.2.1/ Share the goal of the Retro session

Every meeting needs a goal. Please share with your team why you have to retro, what retro brings to the team. Let’s make the team feel comfortable, let them know this session is a time for me to share and share instead of blaming or blaming.

And don’t forget the time-box for your meeting. Meetings like this, without good time management, will easily get lost. According to standard Scrum, retro is no more than 3 hours, I usually apply for the team at 1:30. To avoid wasting too much time people.

C.2.2/ Quick explanation of MSG . rule

Explain Mad / Sad / Glad quickly, give some examples and observe the attitude of your team to make sure that the team understands and is interested in the game you propose.

The rules of the game I recommend

  • Depending on the number of members, it usually takes 5′ – 10′ to write and paste the note
  • Regulate each member to have a minimum number of notes if needed. To avoid breaking my own retro strategy
  • Each note should be marked. For example, write M or S or G for each note for easy statistics after the meeting

C.2.3/ Gaming

Encourage and encourage members to write down their feelings. Can give examples of current problems in the group. Or you yourself write it down and make notes on the board. This will motivate members to open up and follow through.

Maybe play some music without lyrics, pat the members on the shoulder to encourage morale, lead them out of their seats. Some physical movements will help the members get rid of the constraints of daily work. Depending on your level of engagement with the team, choose a strategy to implement.

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C.3/ Synthesis

Depending on how many notes you have on the board, you will choose a strategy to deal with those notes. Here are a few of my suggestions

  • Let’s talk about GLAD first: I usually talk about GLAD first, fun things always make us more comfortable and easier to be confused. Don’t forget to give the team or members a round of applause to celebrate the successes. Then there will be SAD, about sharing, disappointment and sadness. Here, if the PM host, you can use empathy, observation, and eye contact to analyze and coordinate the emotions of the members appropriately. Finally will be MAD, this will usually be the PROBLEM group, the group we want to change, please pay attention to the meeting atmosphere in this session to manage conflicts when needed.
  • Call for agreement: Ask the team and members “Does anyone else feel the same way?” “We were…isn’t that right, everyone?” Use voting to collect opinions. Done, please record the number so we can get the most appreciated events/issues for the next session
  • Go through all the notes: Read aloud and go through all the cards, possibly dividing them into categories (e.g. process, career progression, environment, …) for you to manage and General feedback to the problem group. For issues (usually in MAD) you will need to record on the board and the number of votes so we can brainstorm later.

C.4/ Problem Solving

Watch the time and agree with our team on how many problems we will solve. Sometimes in that session, we only need to focus on discussing 1-2 important issues. Don’t be too greedy, there are problems that when solved will bring great results or solve other problems too. Be tactical when choosing a problem to solve. A few tips and steps I often take

  • Repeat problem and call for discussion: Encourage the team to describe the problem again. Share your thoughts about the issue to get more information about it
  • Try to find the root cause: One of the most common mistakes is that we often go straight to the solution. Usually it will work with cases when there is an incident or emergency (Incident). If there is a problem, you should find the root cause. Try some problem analysis methods, I usually use 5 Whys to trace a few rounds of the problem with the team.
  • Let the team come up with a solution: After making sure you have enough information, call for a solution with the team. The fact that the whole team comes up with a solution will call for self-discipline and commitment of members. Let’s continuously coach the team that we have solved the problem when we worked on that solution? Ask all members to get the highest number of votes to do it
  • Make an implementation plan: Give specific steps and time to make sure the team’s solution is feasible and will be implemented.
  • Finally… take notes and document again: In project engineering there is a type of document called Lesson Learned, keep these lessons in mind throughout your project. The notes and brainstorming process also need to be noted and saved when the team needs it

So still pay attention to the meeting time, if we are overtime, let’s focus on finalizing the solution and the application plan instead of briefly closing and then moving on to another issue. The importance of the Retro session is the improvement results and the consensus of the members.

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D/ Conclusion

The Mad Sad Glad method is not the only and most useful method in all Retro meetings, but this is a traditional and commonly used method to collect the emotions and problems of the members. member after a certain period of time or event. Make sure you choose the right method to make your Retro session effective. In general, the role of the PM will be the facilitator (facilitator), the host (host) to ensure that his team / department is shared, discussed and improved every day together. Wish you have a successful Retro meeting.

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Source : Viblo