This question trips up lots of folks, at all levels …
“How are your retrospectives going?”
You can insert “learning review sessions” or something else similar in the same spot as “retrospectives” … the answer is usually the same: there is no real answer. Just a lot of “uh” and other stalling sounds, sometimes along with some form of mumbling.
In those cases, it’s almost guaranteed that the reason their ______ isn’t working as expected. (Fill in the blank with any important effort like a critical strategic plan initiative, transformation, agile implementation, etc.)
Doing something new implies there is some level of uncertainty. A fundamental principle is that you can’t construct perfect plans amid uncertainty.
Jim Highsmith said it well: “Many traditional planners don’t understand a key concept – you can’t ‘plan’ away uncertainty. Uncertainty is another way of expressing what we don’t know – about the ends or the means. For most uncertainties (lack of knowledge) the only way to reduce the uncertainty and gain knowledge is to execute – to do something, to build something, to simulate something – and then get feedback.”
The point of feedback – as Jim cited above – is to check and adjust the initial plan and progress (or lack thereof).
Post-mortems, lessons learned sessions, and the like are great … but at the end of the effort there is nothing that can be done to improve results of that effort. Only improve future efforts. That’s good, but why not also improve current efforts?
It’s far better to be checking and adjusting along the way, rather than waiting until the end. If there is no checking and adjusting (e.g., retrospectives) along the way, then you are depending on an initial plan based on uncertainty – an uncertain plan.
Do you depend on uncertain plans?
Fundamental error. And one that can be hazardous to both your company and your career health.
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