Retrospectives for Organizational Change: An Agile Approach

By Jutta Eckstein

In this book, Jutta Eckstein examines how retrospectives –originally a kind of a facilitated workshop for gaining feedback– can be applied conceptually to initiate and implement organizational change. Technically, retrospectives were an instrument for a group to examine a past joint period of time and learn from that. The participant

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jutta Eckstein
• Release date: Feb 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9783947991013

Jutta Eckstein

Jutta Eckstein trabaja como coach independiente, consultora, formadora, autora y conferenciante. Ha ayudado a muchos equipos y organizaciones de todo el mundo a hacer transformaciones Agile. Tiene experiencia aplicando Agile en proyectos distribuidos de misión crítica de tamaño grande y mediano y ha escrito sobre sus experiencias. Tiene un máster en Coach de negocios y Gestión del Cambio, un Diploma de Ingeniería de Producto y una Licenciatura en Educación.Es miembro de Agile Alliance (habiendo estado en el comité de dirección desde 2003 a 2007) y miembro del comité de programas de muchas conferencias diferentes de América, Asia y Europa, donde también ha presentado su trabajo.

Book preview

Retrospectives for Organizational Change

Retrospectives for Organizational Change

An Agile Approach

Jutta Eckstein

This book is for sale at http://leanpub.com/retrospectivesfororganizationalchange

This version was published on 2019-02-15

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© 2019 2nd edition. © 2014 1st edition. Jutta Eckstein, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany. All rights reserved.

ISBN for EPUB version: 978-3-947991-01-3

ISBN for MOBI version: 978-3-947991-02-0

Table of Contents

Abbreviations

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

1. Preface

2. Introduction

3. Objective

4. Design and Function of Retrospectives

4.1 Duration, Participation, Attitude

4.2 Purpose

4.3 Phases

5. Challenges in Organizational Change

5.1 Different Kinds of Change

5.2 Unclear Goals

5.3 Increase in Demand for Participation

6. Enabling Organizational Change

6.1 Diversity in Participation

6.2 Existing Experiences

6.3 Deciding What to Do

6.4 Relation and Demarcation to other Methods

7. Heuristic Evidence

7.1 Usefulness for Change Management

7.2 Adaptive Action and Retrospectives

8. Experiences with Exemplary Applications

8.1 Feedback on the Meta-Level

8.2 Enabling Complex Change

8.3 Enabling Dynamic Change

9. Reflection on the Suggested Method

10. Closing Remarks

Reference List

Appendix

Results from Open Space at RfG 2012/13

Protocol of Workshop at XP 2013

Protocol of Enabling a Dynamic Change

Protocol of Enabling a Complex Change

About the Author

Other Books by the Authors

Notes

Abbreviations

cf.: confer (Latin), compare

e.g.: exempli gratia (Latin), for example

HSD: Human Systems Dynamics

ibid.: ibidem (Latin), the same place

i.e.: id est (Latin), that is

Kindle ed.: Kindle Edition

pos.: Position in ebook

PMO: Project Management Office

RfG: Retrospective Facilitator Gathering

XP: International Conference on Agile Software Development

List of Figures

Analysis while Playing (own illustration)

Landscape Diagram (cf. Holladay & Quade, 2008, p. 30)

Applicability of Concepts and Tools over Time (own illustration)

Relation to Adaptive Action (own illustration)

Tools and Techniques supporting Adaptive Action (own illustration)

Same and Different (own illustration)

Acknowledgments

This work would not have been possible without the contribution and feedback of my colleagues at the Retrospective Facilitators Gatherings in 2012 and 2013. I want to express my special gratitude to Diana Larsen who was brave enough to co-present this experimental topic at the XP conference in 2013. Additionally, I want to thank my clients from all over the world with whom I had the pleasure to work and learn with – not least about using Retrospective for Enabling Organizational Change.

Particularly, I want to acknowledge all the reviewers who provided their insights and feedback. Thanks to Kerstin Bücher and Nicolai M. Josuttis from Germany, Vikram Kapoor from the Netherlands, Charlotte Malther from Denmark, and to Diana Larsen and Linda Rising from the USA.

Finally I want to thank my professors from the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg –Dr. Gernot Graeßner and Dr. Frank Strikker– for widening my horizon.

1. Preface

It is only the reader,

who turns a book into a book,

by reading it.

– Francis Ponge

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It is recognizable how change becomes a natural companion of our daily work. This has and had as well an effect on the way I am working. That is the reason why I decided to go back to university in 2011 and go through a master’s program in business coaching and change management. I plainly wanted to improve my skills in supporting the individual, the different teams, and the organization in succeeding in these turbulent times.

One of the tools I am using for a long time are retrospectives – yet only in the last maybe five years their real power became clear to me. Retrospectives leverage experiences of individuals for the better of the whole organization. Thus, it is not only to learn from past mistakes as a team but even more so for preparing for the future. How this can possibly work is the core of the book and was –at the same time– the focal point of my master thesis. This is the reason why this book has a deeper theoretical foundation than the other books I wrote. However, knowing more about the effectiveness and the potency of something helps as well to adjust it to own needs. Additionally to the theoretical foundation, I included a