| name | facilitate-retrospective |
| description | Design and facilitate a team retrospective using Derby & Larsen's five phases, with a format catalogue (Start/Stop/Continue, 4Ls, Sailboat, Mad/Sad/Glad, 5 Whys, Lean Coffee) and Liberating Structures. Produces a retro plan and an output file with action items routed to the next sprint backlog. Use when running or designing a retrospective. |
| argument-hint | [team name and any focus, e.g. 'billing team, recent incident'] |
| user-invocable | true |
| allowed-tools | Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep |
Facilitate a Retrospective
Design and run a retrospective for $ARGUMENTS using the five-phase structure from Esther Derby and Diana
Larsen's Agile Retrospectives. This skill produces a
retro plan before the session and an output file after, with action items routed into the next sprint backlog (a
Scrum Guide requirement). For diagnosing why retros aren't working, use
audit-anti-patterns first.
Step 1: Read context and the safety level
Read the last 2-3 retrospective outputs in docs/coaching/retrospectives/. Look for recurring action items — a
signal the team fixes symptoms, not causes. Check the most recent team-health scan if one exists.
Assess psychological safety before designing the format. A quick anonymous 1-5 check on "how comfortable do you feel
sharing honestly today?" tells you how much is being withheld. Low safety changes the format choice: pick
Mad/Sad/Glad or a silent-writing structure over an open round-robin.
Output: a one-line context note and a safety read (1-5, how assessed).
Step 2: Pick the format to match the moment
Don't run the same format every sprint — teams habituate and disengage. Match the format to what the team needs:
| Format | Best for | Failure mode |
|---|
| Start / Stop / Continue | Fast, familiar, low overhead | Long "start" list with no prioritisation |
| 4Ls (Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For) | More nuance; surfaces forward wishes | Can sprawl without timeboxing |
| Sailboat / Speedboat | Visual, accessible, mixed-discipline teams | Metaphor reduces specificity |
| Mad / Sad / Glad | Low-safety teams; emotional temperature | Stays at feelings without root cause |
| 5 Whys | Root-cause on one specific problem | Stops at first plausible answer |
| Lean Coffee | Team-owned agenda, dot-voted | Misses systemic issues in team blind spots |
For stuck or low-safety groups, layer in Liberating Structures:
- 1-2-4-All — individual → pair → quartet → whole group. Ideas
form in private before group pressure. ~15 min.
- TRIZ — "how would we guarantee the worst possible outcome?" then
invert. Surfaces dysfunctions polite retros skip.
- What, So What, Now What — separate observation from interpretation from action. Good after incidents.
Output: the chosen format and why it fits this moment.
Step 3: Run the five phases
Facilitate, don't dominate. You serve the process; the team owns the outcome. Hold neutrality — if you have a view,
declare it ("stepping out of facilitator mode for a moment") and step back in.
- Set the stage. Open with Kerth's Prime Directive
as the safety frame: "everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time." Confirm the
timebox and the format. Get everyone speaking once early (a check-in word) so silence isn't the default.
- Gather data. Collect what actually happened — events, facts, feelings. Use the chosen format. Use silent
writing or dot voting to counter the Loudmouth pattern (one voice shaping conclusions).
- Generate insights. This is the phase teams skip — going straight from data to action is the "Wheel of
Fortune" anti-pattern and fixes symptoms. Use 5 Whys or What/So What/Now What to find root causes.
- Decide what to do. Convert insights into a small number of specific action items. Fewer, owned, and done
beats a long list nobody picks up. Each action gets an owner and a due sprint.
- Close the retrospective. Confirm the action items and where they're going. A quick appreciation or a
return-on-time-invested check closes the loop and gives you a signal on the session itself.
Step 4: Route action items and write the output
Write docs/coaching/retrospectives/YYYY-MM-DD.md. Every action item goes into the next sprint backlog with an
owner — not a parking lot, not "the team." A retro that ends without action items routed into the backlog was status
theatre.
Rules
- Always open Set the Stage with the Prime Directive. Reciting it doesn't substitute for believing it — if blame
surfaces, redirect to systemic conditions, not the person.
- Never skip Generate Insights. Data → action with no insight phase fixes symptoms and the problem returns next
sprint.
- Never let the retro discuss only things outside the team's control ("In the Soup"). Redirect to what the team
can change; note the external item for the delivery manager to carry.
- Vary the format across sprints, but don't change it for novelty alone — change it to match what the team needs.
- Don't assign action items to "the team" or leave them undated. No owner and no due sprint means it won't happen.
- Never facilitate as a participant with a stake in the outcome without declaring it. Undeclared steering corrodes
trust faster than an honest opinion.
Output Format
---
title: Retrospective — [team] — [date]
date: YYYY-MM-DD
author: agile-coach
category: Coaching
---
## Context
- Sprint / period: [...]
- Safety read: [1-5, how assessed]
- Format used: [name] — chosen because [...]
## What we gathered
[Events, facts, feelings from the data phase.]
## Insights (root causes)
[What the team discovered — in the team's words, not yours.]
## Action items (routed to next sprint backlog)
| Action | Owner | Due sprint | Backlog item |
|--------|-------|-----------|--------------|
| [action] | [member] | [sprint] | [id/link] |
## Carried out of scope
[Items outside the team's control — handed to the delivery manager.]
## Facilitator note
- Format effectiveness: [...]
- Recurring item watch: [any action item recycled from a prior retro]
