Templates · Essentials

Liked, Lacked, Change

Reviews what helped and what held the team back, then asks each person and the whole team what they will change.

What it is

Four columns. Two look back: what helped us move forward, what held us back. Two ask for change at two levels: what can I change, what can we change. Splitting the personal from the collective is what marks the format.

Goal

Two kinds of commitment: what each person will do differently on their own authority, and what the team changes together.

When to use it

• When the actions of your retrospectives always begin with “the team should” and nobody owns them.
• When the members are at ease enough to look at their own part.
• When much of what holds the team back is within individual reach: how people prepare, review, ask for help.

When to pick another format

What can I change? asks for self-criticism in front of others. Where trust is low, run a Safety Check first, or take Start, Stop, Continue, which stays at the level of the team. If the obstacles lie outside the team’s control, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly has a column for them.

How to run it

1. Liked: ask what helped the team move forward.
2. Lacked: ask what held it back.
3. What can I change? Ask each person what they should do differently. People write for themselves only: never a card about what a colleague should change.
4. What can we change? Ask what the team should do differently as a team.

Group and vote on Lacked and on What can we change?, discuss the most voted cards, and agree on team actions with an owner and a date. The personal column is not voted on. Invite each person to read one of their cards aloud as a commitment; nobody comments. At the next retrospective, begin by asking how those commitments went.

Columns

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