A retrospective is a structured meeting where a team looks back at a recently completed period, project, or iteration to reflect on their process and identify areas for improvement. While many teams naturally gravitate toward discussing pain points and obstacles, an effective approach involves deliberately focusing on positive outcomes. This strategy shifts the conversation away from solely fixing problems and toward understanding the mechanisms behind success. By intentionally examining what worked well, teams can reinforce effective behaviors and replicate successful strategies moving forward. This article explores the structure and practical examples of “what went well” retrospectives designed to leverage positive momentum.
The Strategic Value of Positive Retrospectives
Focusing on accomplishments offers substantial benefits beyond simply acknowledging a job well done. This positive reinforcement serves to significantly boost team morale and provides a sense of accomplishment, which is an important countermeasure against potential burnout after intense work cycles. By documenting and discussing successful actions, the team identifies repeatable processes that can be standardized and scaled to future projects. Identifying success allows a team to understand the levers of high performance, making effective practices intentional rather than accidental.
These positive discussions foster a culture of recognition, helping individuals connect their specific actions to the overall team victory. Leveraging these successes ensures that the team is continually building upon its strengths.
Essential Stages for a Successful Retrospective
A successful retrospective follows a consistent procedural framework to ensure a productive outcome. The process begins by setting the stage, which involves establishing ground rules and ensuring psychological safety so all members feel comfortable contributing honestly. The next stage is to gather data, focusing entirely on collecting input regarding positive achievements and moments of high performance. This collective data is then used to generate insights by analyzing patterns and understanding the cause-and-effect relationships behind the successes.
Once patterns are identified, the team moves to decide what to do, translating successful behaviors into concrete, actionable steps for the next iteration. This stage ensures that positive findings are actively integrated into the team’s future operating procedures. The final stage is to close the retrospective, which involves summarizing the action items and thanking the participants for their honest contributions.
Practical “What Went Well” Retrospective Examples
Start, Stop, Continue, Shout-Out
The Start, Stop, Continue, Shout-Out model integrates positive reinforcement directly into the review structure. The team determines what new practices to start, what ineffective practices to stop, and what successful practices to continue in the next cycle. The “Shout-Out” component celebrates individuals or small groups for behaviors that contributed significantly to the project’s success. This mechanism highlights specific actions worth replicating and provides immediate, public recognition for high performance. It ensures that the people driving successful behaviors feel valued and seen.
The Three Ws: Worked, Wish, Wonder
The Three Ws template offers a concise and straightforward way to review a period with a strong focus on positive outcomes. The “Worked” category is the primary focus, requiring the team to identify all the things that went right and contributed to goal achievement. The “Wish” category captures ideas for improvement or tools that would have made the success easier to attain. Finally, the “Wonder” category encourages speculative thinking about how a success might be expanded or what external factors could influence future performance. This simple structure provides a low-barrier-to-entry framework for teams new to structured reflection.
Sailboat Retrospective (Anchor and Wind)
The Sailboat Retrospective uses a visual metaphor to help teams map their journey and identify factors that influenced their speed toward the goal. In a positive retrospective, the focus is placed on the “Wind,” representing successful practices, team strengths, or external factors that propelled the team forward. The “Island” represents the project goal the team reached. By charting the wind, the team visually reinforces the most powerful drivers of their success. This model encourages participants to analyze successes in terms of momentum and acceleration.
Appreciative Inquiry Model
The Appreciative Inquiry (AI) model is an organizational development approach adapted for hyper-positive retrospectives. AI is structured around four stages: Discover, Dream, Design, and Deliver. In the Discover phase, the team identifies and maps the peak performance moments of the past cycle, focusing only on what gave life to the project. The Dream phase encourages participants to envision how these peak moments could be amplified and scaled across the organization or future projects. This structured focus ensures the retrospective is entirely centered on building from strength rather than dwelling on weaknesses.
Techniques for Maximizing Participation and Honesty
Effective facilitation is necessary to ensure every team member contributes their insights into what went well. Using anonymity, such as digital tools or sticky notes, encourages more candid input, especially when discussing individual successes that might otherwise lead to discomfort. Timeboxing contributions ensures that quiet individuals have the opportunity to speak without being overshadowed by more vocal members. The facilitator establishes ground rules that emphasize “assume positive intent” when discussing successful actions. This simple rule helps maintain psychological safety and prevents discussions from veering into negativity or blame. The facilitator must also use a “parking lot” to set aside any discussions that stray into problem-solving, keeping the session focused purely on positive analysis.
Documenting and Leveraging Successes
Positive findings from a retrospective must be translated into tangible, documented actions to ensure they are not lost. Success is leveraged by translating successful behaviors into repeatable standards that are integrated into team operating agreements or playbooks. For example, a successful communication pattern should be written down as a standard operating procedure for future projects. This documentation ensures that positive lessons learned are formalized and accessible to current and future team members. A retrospective provides value when concrete action items are created and assigned to specific owners, ensuring the team systematically builds upon its past achievements.