Agile Retrospectives, 2nd Edition

Chapter 14Overcoming Objections

While we believe in the power of retrospectives, we’ve found that others are skeptical. Sometimes with good reason (“I’ve been doing retros for years and they’ve never worked before”) and sometimes not (“Leave me alone—I just want to code”).

Since retrospectives are most productive when the team is fully bought in, it’s important to address these objections head-on. But how? How do you overcome individual—or even whole team—skepticism?

This chapter will help you effectively navigate these objections. We’ll go over the most common reasons people are skeptical of retrospectives (or even disillusioned with them) and what to do about each one of them.

But first, let’s start with why this matters in the first place. ...