Get managers our of retro
So there I was, sitting in a conference room to observe a retrospective for a team that was stagnating, and as people were coming in there was chit chat about project work, games, the usual dev team banter. Everyone sat down, and it was time for the meeting to start! And nothing happened, everyone kept chatting, the scrum master kept fiddling with their laptop, and I was confused as to what was going on.
Then, 7 minutes late, The Boss walked in, and everything changed.
A cartoon of foxes in a retro meeting. One posts a note under “What Went Poorly” as others sit with laptops. A green fox in a suit leans in, clearly “The Boss,” disrupting the casual tone. The board is filled with colorful sticky notes.
You've all experienced this, the mood shift that happens when someone walks in, and as an autistic person who is obsessive about gauging the mood of a room it felt like someone should have been playing The Imperial March. The meeting started immediately (because it seems the start time of the meeting was when The Boss showed up), and one of the most common things I see when consulting with teams in this situation happened, no one actually talked about anything that needed improvement, they just shared vague thoughts and said everything was going fine. Afterwards, the manager and I were talking and they asked why the team wasn't making the progress they need, and I made it perfectly clear: When the person who can choke you from across the room is watching, no one wants to look like a good target.
Ok, I actually told them that their presence in the meeting was keeping the team from being able to talk about what they actually need to work on because no one wants to imply there are problems in front of The Boss.
And this doesn't just happen with The Bosses that come with their own theme music, even supportive fantastic bosses disrupt the ability for people to be able to give honest critical feedback, because they have the ability to force choke… I mean take away the safety that comes from having a job. This is why in almost any situation I fully believe managers should NOT be included in retrospectives. I've heard one exception that I've found to be valid so far, we'll cover that in a minute.
Three cartoon foxes hold a retrospective. They write sticky notes for “What went well?”, “What poorly?”, and “Improvements” on a board. Through a window, a yellow fox in a tie watches, hinting at a manager’s presence disrupting psychological safety.
The reason this happens comes back to psychological safety (seems to be a running theme, almost like this is the root of 90% of the problems at work these days). Unless you're only working to kill time chances are you NEED your job to be able to survive, and I'm talking physical safety here. Our jobs provide food, shelter, and health care (at least for us poor suckers in the USA). Anything that could be a threat to our employment is a threat to our safety and everyone knows that The Boss is the one who can take that safety away without even a minutes notice (Current layoff count in my household: 11). So on a very primal level, every one of us knows The Boss is a threat, and we WILL act to protect ourselves.
And the easiest most common way to protect yourself is to make sure you look good, because most managers believe their job is to remove those who aren't performing properly (which is a huge issue in itself I'll have to rant about later). And clearly this means if the boss is sitting in the room and we feel they will target anyone or anything not working how they want, we're never going to provide real critical feedback about what is going on.
Which brings us back to the retrospectives, you know, the meeting that is supposed to be all about providing real critical feedback. If it feels like there is a lion watching the herd potentially looking for the slowest mover, no one will say that they're having a hard time completing tasks even if the issue has nothing to do with them, or could be resolved with a few minutes of conversation. And you'll never believe this, but if a team is afraid to say "this isn't working" during a retrospective, then things are never going to improve. They'll likely just get worse
"But Brett" I hear the hoards of followers shout in unison (I've told you before I can't filter out sound, yes I do hear all of you all the time) "The manager needs to know what is going on or else they can't do their job!" And this is true, but the retrospective meeting isn't where a manager finds out what is going on. Need to know what is needing to be done? Go to the planning meeting. Need to know what was accomplished? Go to a demo. Need to know what is going on with your team members? TALK TO THEM DIRECTLY! In a well managed self organizing team, the boss should not be getting in the way of the team being able to improve how they work.
Now, I mentioned an exception, and that is in the rare situation where the manager is also part of the actual day to day project work. For example, I've been on teams with 3 people, and the manager was doing just as much project work as anyone else on the team. Naturally, in these cases the manager needs to be in the meeting because they have a real stake in how things are being done, but these managers HAVE to be well trained in making environments safe and put in extra effort in EVERY meeting to make it clear they're not there as The Boss (muting the theme music helps). Otherwise, the team will likely just be stuck where they are.
I really really hope I've pissed off some managers today, and I honestly want to know your reasons for needing to be in retrospectives so share away! I'm willing to hear other reasons and add them to my short list. But hopefully we've sparked some thoughts about who needs to be in what meetings, and what problems can arise from the wrong person being in the room (or call).
Non-managers, how do you feel about having your boss in a retrospective? Anyone daring enough to share something you would have said if the boss wasn't around, and how that might have changed things? Any tips for a good "manager repellant" process?