Why Your Retrospective Action Items Aren’t Getting Done
You had a good retrospective . The team was honest. People participated. You identified problems that genuinely matter. Then the next Sprint starts. A week or two later, many of the same problems are still there. It’s easy to assume the retrospective didn’t work. Maybe the team isn’t engaged enough. Maybe people aren’t taking enough ownership. Maybe you need a better retrospective format. But before changing the format or adding another process, look at something simpler: Did the team actually make a clear decision about what action to take? A good conversation can create awareness. But if the team leaves without a clear decision, clear ownership, and a way to follow through, that awareness may never turn into change. A good discussion isn’t the same as a decision Scrum events create opportunities for teams to inspect what’s happening and decide what to do next. But discussion alone doesn’t create change. Consider a common retrospective conversation: “Our stories weren’t re...