Agile Retrospectives, 2nd Edition

Handle Challenging Dynamics

The vast majority of retrospectives go pretty much as planned. If you’ve chosen activities to equalize participation, you will most likely take on challenging topics in a pleasant way. But sometimes, chaos breaks loose.

Remember, there’s a pretty good chance these issues don’t have much to do with what’s happening in the room but with some other deeper pattern. It’s not your job to fix people’s issues. If outbursts are the ongoing rule on your team, something else is happening. You will want to attend to those outside the retrospective. Retrospectives aren’t appropriate venues to solve every problem. Your human resources representative or manager may be able to offer guidance.

Before you jump in to fix things, notice ...