Templates · Essentials

KALM (Keep, Add, More, Less)

Tunes how the team works by keeping, adding and adjusting the dose, without asking anyone to stop anything.

What it is

Four columns named by the initials of the format: keep, add, more, less. There is no column for stopping. The hardest verdict a practice can receive is “less”.

Goal

Adjustments to the practices the team already has, a new practice to try, and an agreement on what is worth protecting.

When to use it

• When things go reasonably well and need tuning, not repair.
• With a team that takes criticism of its habits personally: “less” is easier to hear than “stop”.
• A few sprints after introducing new practices, to find their right dose.

When to pick another format

When something has no value left, KALM has no place for it and people stretch Less to fit it in. Take DAKI or Starfish, which both let a practice go. KALM also looks at habits only: to review what happened in the sprint, use Went well, To improve, Action ideas.

How to run it

1. Keep: ask what works today and would be the first thing lost under pressure.
2. Add: ask for something the team does not have yet and wants to try.
3. More: ask what already happens occasionally and should happen routinely.
4. Less: ask what is useful in smaller doses. The aim is to reduce it, not to abolish it.

Group the cards, vote, and discuss the most voted. Cards of More and Less describe quantities, so ask “how much?” until the answer can be checked: how often, how long, for whom. From Add, choose few: a new practice costs attention. Finish with Keep: read the cards and check that none of the actions you just agreed on undermines them. Each action gets an owner and a date.

Columns

To start a retrospective from this template, see Create a retro.