MINUTEKIT / FREE FACILITATOR PACK 30-MINUTE RETROSPECTIVE: CHOOSE ONE SMALL EXPERIMENT This is a complete, editable plain-text session plan. All times are elapsed from the start. Transitions are included. Adapt the plan to your group; it does not guarantee a particular result. No MinuteKit account or JavaScript is needed to read this file. WHO IT FITS A group of roughly four to eight people who have completed the same piece of work. With a larger group, collect observations beforehand or give subgroups separate discussions; do not promise every person a full speaking turn in this half hour. INTENDED OUTPUT A written proposal for one small change, with a willing owner, a review date and a specific observation that will help the group decide whether to continue it. PREPARE 1. Choose a clear period, such as the last event or the previous two weeks. Put its start and end on the handout. Ask people to bring one specific example from that period, without customer details or personal information. 2. Prepare a shared board or a sheet per person with three headings: Helped, Made work harder, Try next. The facilitator keeps a separate place for issues outside this group’s control. 3. Check who can authorize a change and who has capacity to own it. If a decision-maker is absent, call the result a proposal and name who will seek approval. 4. Set the five agenda durations to 4, 6, 8, 8 and 4 minutes. Use one facilitator-controlled timer. Have paper available so contributing does not depend on having a device. FACILITATOR SCRIPT / 30 MINUTES 1. 00:00-00:04 / 4 minutes / Set the boundary and the working agreement SAY We are looking at this period of work, not rating people. We will leave with one change we can try. You may pass on a speaking turn or contribute in writing. Describe what happened and its effect, without guessing someone’s intention. DO Name the period and the deliverable. Spend the first two minutes on scope, then invite one factual sentence about what the group delivered. Ask whether anything important makes this the wrong setting for a discussion; a sensitive individual concern needs a separate conversation. CLOSE Confirm the boundary aloud. Do not use this session to investigate a complaint or promise confidentiality that a shared group cannot provide. 2. 00:04-00:10 / 6 minutes / Write observations before discussing them SAY For each note, write a situation and an effect: “When X happened, Y became easier or harder.” Add a possible change only after the observation. An opinion without an example can stay as an open question. DO Allow three quiet minutes. Use the remaining three for a short round: each person offers one note or passes. Keep the notes in the contributor’s words and avoid replying to each note immediately. CLOSE Leave unspoken notes visible or collect them for the same review. No one needs to fill every heading. 3. 00:10-00:18 / 8 minutes / Choose one pattern within the group’s control SAY Which repeated obstacle could we reduce with one change we can actually make? We are choosing a test, not declaring every other issue unimportant. DO Spend three minutes grouping related observations and asking for concrete examples. Spend three identifying one pattern with a plausible, limited change. In the last two minutes, ask whether anyone sees a reason the proposed change would be unsafe, impractical or unfair. Record disagreement rather than presenting a vote as unanimous agreement. CLOSE Name one pattern and the evidence offered. Put unrelated items in the parking place with a next step only if someone agrees to own it. 4. 00:18-00:26 / 8 minutes / Write a reversible experiment SAY For the next piece of work, we will try one different action. Who is willing and able to own it? What will we observe, and on what date will we decide whether to keep, change or stop it? DO Use the handout to write the action, its scope, a willing owner and a review date. Reserve the first five minutes for drafting and the final three for checking effort and possible downsides. Choose an observation the team can collect without recording private conversation contents. CLOSE If nobody has capacity to own the change, reduce its scope or leave it explicitly unassigned. Do not manufacture a commitment to finish the worksheet. 5. 00:26-00:30 / 4 minutes / Read back the decision and the remaining uncertainty SAY Here is the experiment as I understand it. What have I missed? At the review we will compare what happened with what we expected; we are not promising the change will work. DO Read the action, owner and review date in two minutes. Use the last two for corrections and agreeing where the record will live. Give the owner a copy and keep the unresolved question with it. CLOSE End on time with an experiment, a proposal awaiting approval, or an explicit decision that more information is needed. All three are honest outcomes. PARTICIPANT HANDOUT / COPY AND EDIT Keep this section separate from the facilitator notes before distributing it. RETROSPECTIVE / PARTICIPANT WORKSHEET Work period or event: What we delivered: One thing that helped: Specific situation: Effect on the work: One thing that made work harder: Specific situation: Effect on the work: Pattern we selected: Evidence we actually have: Question or disagreement still open: OUR NEXT EXPERIMENT For this piece of work or period: We will try this one action: Willing owner: Approval needed, if any: Effort or downside to watch: What we will observe: Review date: Where the record will live: AT THE REVIEW What happened: What we cannot conclude yet: Keep / change / stop, and why: Next owner and date: ILLUSTRATIVE OUTPUT Illustrative completed output: “Before the next club event, Maya will share one equipment checklist the day before setup. The setup lead will note which items were still missing at the start, without recording who forgot them. Review on the next planning date. Keep or change the checklist after reviewing that one event; do not claim it proves a lasting improvement.” Maya and the event are examples, not reported users or results. PITFALLS AND ADAPTATIONS - A long story can consume the whole slot. Ask for the situation, its effect and the question to resolve; park the rest with the speaker’s agreement. - A change outside the team’s authority is a proposal, not a decision. Write the approval step and do not count an absent person as its owner. - Do not cut the final read-back to squeeze in another topic. A shorter list with a clear next step is easier to use than a large unowned list. USE WITH MINUTEKIT Agenda template: https://minutekit.pages.dev/workshop-kit/?template=retrospective Free pack: https://minutekit.pages.dev/workshop-pack/ PDF studio: https://minutekit.pages.dev/pdf-studio/ Open the matching agenda, edit it for your session, and start each activity timer yourself. Timers do not advance the agenda automatically. Copy the participant handout into PDF studio to make a printable version; inspect the downloaded PDF before sharing. Direct PDF download supports basic Latin text. For other scripts, use Print / Save PDF and inspect the browser preview. Keep the text file or your own copy: drafts are not saved to a MinuteKit account. Tool interactions require JavaScript; this downloaded plan does not. PERMISSION TO ADAPT You may copy and adapt this material for your own paid or unpaid facilitated sessions, and share your adapted participant handouts with those participants. Do not resell or redistribute the original MinuteKit pack as a standalone template product. This permission covers this original pack, not third-party software or materials. Original MinuteKit material. Worked examples are illustrative, not testimonials or reported results.