Templates · Essentials

Likes, Wishes, Wonders

A gentle format that collects appreciation, wishes and open questions, with no column for problems.

What it is

Three columns, none of them negative. Criticism is not excluded: it is rephrased, as a wish (what I would like instead) or as a wonder (a question nobody has answered).

Goal

Feedback that people can hear: what to keep, constructive proposals, and the doubts that would otherwise stay unspoken.

When to use it

• With a new team, newcomers or guests who do not yet dare to criticise.
• After a tense period, when the team needs to rebuild trust.
• To get feedback on something specific: a workshop, a project, a way of working.

When to pick another format

When a real problem has to be named plainly, a wish can blur it: Went well, To improve, Action ideas or Mad, Sad, Glad say it straight. To decide on practices, take Start, Stop, Continue. If the team also needs to look at what is coming, WRAP adds a column for risks.

How to run it

1. Likes: ask what each person appreciates about how the team works today.
2. Wishes: ask for changes, phrased as a wish and not as a demand. Starting the card with “I wish we” helps.
3. Wonders: ask for open questions and doubts. Starting the card with “I wonder why” or “I wonder whether” helps.

Take Wonders first in the discussion. Answer what can be answered on the spot; what cannot becomes one person’s task to find out and report. Then group and vote on Wishes. For the most voted, ask what would make the wish come true, and write the action with an owner and a date. A wish can also be declined: saying why, openly, is better than leaving it on the board. End with Likes.

Columns

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