Retro Host Training
Two training days. You already run retrospectives. Here your people learn to facilitate them so that something actually comes out of them. Taught by an IHK-certified trainer, on site or online.
The retro runs. Nothing happens afterwards.
Every two weeks someone collects sticky notes under "what went well" and "what went badly", a list appears at the end, and next time the same list appears again. That is rarely the format's fault and almost always because nobody ever learned to facilitate it.
Two days in which your people facilitate themselves
-
Preparation
I adapt the training concept to your context. The practice material consists of real cases from your company, not invented scenarios from a trainer's toolkit.
-
Day 1
Phase model, method repertoire, the host's stance. Then the first practice rounds with feedback.
-
Day 2
Handling disruption and resistance, feedback rules, securing results, and where the line to escalation runs.
-
Closing
Every participant plans their first own retrospective concretely and in writing. Not as an intention, but with a date, participants, and an agenda.
Sitting in on the first retrospective they run themselves
Two training days do not make anyone a host. That is decided in the first retrospective they run in front of actual colleagues. That is where I sit in, stay out of it, and we debrief the session afterwards one on one. Plus short written feedback.
Not part of the two days, arranged separately. For anyone who wants to be sure the training survives its first real test.
How the training runs
Two consecutive days, at your place or online, as a rule with four participants.
Consecutive, because day two builds on the practice rounds of day one. On site or online, however you normally work together. A team that runs its retrospectives remotely should practise remotely.
Facilitation is learned by practising under observation. With four people everyone gets enough rounds of their own with feedback, without the two days bursting at the seams. More participants are possible. Then we plan additional practice time so nobody just watches.
What is certified is me as a trainer, not this format. I developed this very concept as part of that certification and had its delivery assessed. So what carries the certificate is the didactics behind it, combined with the psychology of growing teams.
What your hosts can do afterwards
- Run a retrospective so that it ends with measures recording who does what by when.
- Absorb resistance and disruption without either aborting the session or glossing over it.
- Bring quiet experts in and recognise polite pseudo-agreement for what it is.
- Judge when a topic no longer belongs in the retrospective and has to be escalated.
Who the training is not for.
Trained hosts do not facilitate a smouldering dispute between two departments. That has to be resolved first, otherwise you burn your own people.
Someone who does not want to facilitate still will not after two days. Who you pick decides more about the outcome than the training does.
A good retrospective makes problems visible. Someone still has to decide on them afterwards.
The training is not part of the Sprint.
In the Sprint you get the process. In the training you get people who can run it. Either works on its own.
Inquiry for Retro Host Training
Let's clarify who in your team fits the host profile and how training fits your schedule.
Pick a slot for the discovery call
Free, 20 to 30 minutes, no sales pitch. You see my open slots and pick one. No waiting for a reply.
See available slotsIf I am the wrong person for this, I say so in the call.