Management
The Meeting That Creates High-Performing Leadership Teams
Round-robin retros can help all your team members feel truly seen and heard.
Every time you don’t share how you’re feeling with a colleague, you’re taking out emotional debt. You’ll have to pay it back eventually, but it will cost you more to have the conversation later rather than sooner.
Emotional debt accumulates rapidly on every team, and your leadership team is no different. Sadly, there’s no Xero or QuickBooks keeping track of the debt and it’s pretty invisible, particularly to leaders.
What if I told you I could reduce the emotional debt in your leadership by 90% — and it would take just one hour of everyone’s time each week?
‘Stop it, Dave,’ I hear you collectively say. ‘That’s impossible.’
Well, it is possible. I call the meeting a ‘round-robin retro’ and it’s the most important meeting you aren’t regularly having with your team.
The structure is dead simple, so let’s take a look at it.
Part 1: ‘What went well?’
One-by-one, each person gives a single, specific, one-sentence answer to the question, ‘What went well?’ Once everyone in the room has done this, go around again . . . and again, until people have voiced everything that’s gone well.
The facilitator’s role is crucial here. They must:
- Take notes
- Acknowledge each answer — ‘Thanks for sharing that, John.’
- Maintain a fast pace — ‘Barbara, it’s your turn.’
- Cut off any discussion — ‘We’re here to listen. We’ll talk about improvements later.’
- Nudge for more responses — ‘Come on, what else went well?’
Part 2: ‘What didn’t go well?’
You can follow exactly the same format for this question. Remember, the objective is to listen, not solve, and the facilitator’s role is to make the environment safe enough for everyone to share their grievances without the risk of being shot down.
