Something to doWorking with others
Hold a team retro
A simple exercise to hear what your team would change about how you work, and act on one thing
Why it’s worth your time
A retro gives your team a regular, low-stakes way to tell you what they'd change about how you work together. Asking what to start, stop and keep is simple enough that everyone can answer, and ending with one agreed change gives the next retro a reason to exist.
How to run a team retrospective that changes something
You’ll come away with one change the team chose, with an owner and a date.
We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.
- Set it up and say what's in scope.
Thirty minutes, the whole team, a recent stretch of work to look back on. Say what's up for discussion: how the team works, not who did what.
- Give everyone a few quiet minutes to write first.
Each person jots down what the team should start, stop and keep doing, before anyone speaks. Writing first keeps the first confident voice from setting the direction for everyone.
Tip: Anonymous notes help on newer teams, or anywhere candor is still being built.
- Share, group, and start with keep.
Put everything where people can see it and group what's similar. Talk through what's working first, so the team hears what to protect before it hears what isn't going well.
- Pick one thing to change.
Choose together, then give it an owner and a date. One change that happens beats five that don't.
You“If we could only change one thing before our next retro, which would make the biggest difference?” - Open the next retro with what happened.
Say what came of last time's change and whether it helped. This is the step that makes people take the next retro seriously.
Good moments for this: every two to four weeksat the end of a projectafter a launch or a rough patch
We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.
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Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Once the manager says what they think, many people quietly adjust their own answer. Hearing yours at the end keeps theirs honest.
What might make this harder
Use anonymous written notes for a while, and act visibly on the first small thing that comes up. Candor tends to follow proof that it's safe and useful.
Questions people ask
What is a start, stop, continue retrospective?
A simple team review where everyone says what the team should start doing, stop doing and continue doing. The group then picks a change to act on before the next one.
How often should a team hold a retrospective?
Every two to four weeks suits many teams, plus one at the end of any big project. Short and regular tends to work better than long and rare.
How do I get my team to be honest in a retro?
Have people write before anyone speaks, speak last yourself, and act on what they say. Honesty usually grows once people see it lead somewhere.
Why this works, and where it comes from
Every team carries a list of small things that make the work worse, and the manager rarely sees all of it. From the manager's seat the process often looks fine, because most of the friction happens below it. The handoff that loses a day, the meeting nobody needs, the tool everyone quietly works around. People notice these daily and seldom mention them, partly because there's no moment for it and partly because they doubt anything would change.
Start, stop, continue is one of the plainest retrospective formats, and part of its strength is what it asks for. Not how did we do, which invites a verdict, but what should we do differently, which invites advice. People find advice easier to give well, and it lets them raise a problem as a suggestion rather than a complaint.
The second half is what decides whether any of it matters. A team that raises something and sees nothing happen learns to stop raising things. After that, the retro is theater. Acting on one small thing, visibly and quickly, does more for the next retro than any facilitation technique. That's why the change gets an owner and a date, and why the next session opens with what came of it.
Right after something has gone badly (a layoff, a failed launch, a hard reorg), people may need to be heard before they're ready to plan. Give that its own conversation first and come back to the retro in a few weeks. Planning improvements too soon can feel like being asked to move on before anyone has listened.
Other simple things to consider
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An exercise written by Truest, based on our experience. Last updated September 25, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.