Retrospective: Set the stage examples

[#1]

Hi there

Most who read this article will have attended a retrospective before, perhaps even moderated one.
A good overview on retrospectives can be found here: Team Playbook Retrospective

As a Scrum Master, I have facilitated several hundred retrospectives. I try each time to make a game as a starter. Quite a list comes together which I would like to share with you.

Black or White

Quick answer interview where all participants answer collectively a question which is formed like "A or B?"
E.g.:

• Mineral water: sparkling or still?
• Justin Bieber or Robbie Williams
• ...

Say Hello

All should close their eyes. Someone is saying "Hello", the others has to guess who said "Hello"

Visual Phone

3 post-its for everyone. On the last post-it write a sentance. Give to post-it to the person on your right. This person reads the sentance and draw it on the 2nd post-it. Give to post-it to the person on your right. This person just looks at the drawing and write a sentance about it. That's pretty funny ;)

Punctual Pete

Basically an exercise to remember names.
Combine the name of a participant with an adjective. The adjective should start with the same letter as the name does.

e.g.

• Punctual Pete
• Crazy Chris
• Bossy Boris

Count to 10

All should close their eyes. The target is to count to 10 with the group, but when 2 people say the same number at the same time, it starts with 1 again. 

Other games

• Guess songs
• Guess film music
• Guess country flags
• Guess country outlines
• Guess company logo
• Pictionary

This is a list of my favourites. But there are a lot more, just search the internet and be creative! :) 

Have fun a your next retrospective! 

[Deepanshu Natani]

Thanks for sharing this @Dominic Lagger I would suggest few of these games to one of our customer.

[Prashant Sangappa Shivashimpi]

Hello @Dominic Lagger ,

Great to see these nice notes about retrospective.. It is indeed a team connect initiative and must be done in Fun way to engage team members effectively. The insights from your article are really very good.!

Thank you very much..!

BR,

Prashant.