Conducting a retrospective of the method of six hats
In the next few paragraphs, I want to share my experience of conducting a retrospective using the six-hat method, which happened not so long ago. The method of six hats (English Six Thinking Hats ) is a method of organizing thinking, helps to look at the problem from different angles, as well as one of the types of brainstorming when working in a team.
It will be interesting to those who are looking for new ways to conduct retrospectives, who are interested in teamwork, approaches to making decisions and generating ideas.
The purpose of the text is to tell what this method is, on the basis of a simple example, show how it can be used to organize a retrospective; arouse interest in the reader for further self-study of this method.
The idea of ​​using the six hats method to conduct a retrospective came up when I was looking for interesting options for conducting retrospectives for student developers: the guys had the task of making a student portal, sprint = 1 week, at the end of the week - a retrospective of one pair (a couple - 1.5 hours). I really wanted to organize a couple in such a format, in order to interest even those who are not actively participating in the direct development, and those for whom the process of developing the portal did not cause any inspiration. Another of the important conditions is to share the knowledge that the guys could use in the future, including in their daily life (as it turned out, none of those present had heard about this method before a couple).
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On the method of six hats quite a lot has been written in various sources and in relation to solving a wide variety of problems. Below I only briefly tell you what it is.
The six hats method is a method of organizing thinking , one of the popular ways of brainstorming.
It is no secret that human thinking is very chaotic: here are emotions mixed with common sense, and intuition, and facts. And what if the next time when you need to make a decision or generate an idea, consistently apply: facts; the senses; critical thinking; positive view of the problem; creative thinking? If we speak in the context of the method, try on each of the six hats: white (information and facts), red (emotions and feelings), black (critical judgment), yellow (optimistic), green (creativity). There is also a blue hat - it discusses the organization of the process of consistent “fitting” of hats (for more information, for example, in an article on Wikipedia, each of the six hats is well described and examples are given).
In the most uncomplicated understanding of the Retrospective - a meeting with the project team to complete the sprint to discuss this very sprint, its results : the classic “What was good?”, “What were the problems”, “What ideas for improvement?”, “What was planned for the next sprint?". Those. It is necessary to voice and realize with the team the problems that the team faced during the sprint, to note positive moments, to figure out how to live efficiently further, and it is very important that no team member stay away from the discussion.
And cool to look at the last sprint from different positions and, if possible, do not miss anything important. I’m not being fooled if I say that a retrospective is also an opportunity to rally a team. And the six-hat method can be an effective tool in all of this.
For example, I will tell how it happened with us. First of all, it was very important that the guys did not forget what the purpose of our meeting was. To do this, for example, you can put a plan of retrospectives before your eyes:
All this is the main purpose of the retrospective (taken from here ).
Well, the six hats method is what will help this goal to be achieved, and here it’s time to explain to the team what it is - this method and why we need it. Here, I think, it suffices to restrict ourselves to a concise explanation of minutes 4 with brief simple examples (more understandable than with the direct immersion into the retrospective method of six hats, it will still not be possible at this stage). So that the information is not lost in the minds and no more time was spent on questions, you can hang a simple cheat sheet before your eyes, for example:
After the team has a general idea of ​​the method, it's time to dive into it and start with a blue hat.
Blue hat = management
At this step, you need to tell how today the retrospective will be conducted according to the method, for example: the team will try on each of the hats in turn, this will help you to look at different retrospective aspects from different angles (the ones in the picture above). It is very important to limit the time in each of the hats (how much - depends on what the duration of the retrospective is planned initially) - so the team will have time to discuss the important and not have time to plunge into unnecessary jungle. Well, do not forget to leave time for debriefing.
White hat = information and facts
Here everyone voices facts about the current sprint, for example:
The facts must be objective, there may be both positive and negative - it is important to separate them from each other.
Red hat = emotions and feelings
In this hat, team members voice their feelings from the last sprint, demonstrate emotions (it is important that there is no personal transition). Like facts, emotions and feelings can be as positive as negative, but most importantly, clearly articulated.
Critical judgment
Here you can throw your eyes on the already recorded facts and criticize them (objectively criticize). For example,
etc.
Yellow hat = optimism
In this hat, we highlight the positive moments: what was good in the sprint (“As a result of the sprint, the team worked perfectly”, “Petya, it turns out, is a cool front man! He really helped us with such and such a task”, “The show was great, we are great” that it will be good (“With such a front man as Peter ...” - well, you understood).
Green hat = creativity
By this stage, the team has already recorded the facts about the work during the sprint, highlighted the minuses and pros. It's time to look at all this again: how to avoid voiced minuses in the next sprint? How not to lose and use the advantages in the next sprint? Here we generate and fix ideas on how to improve the team’s work for the next sprint.
Summarizing
According to the results of the retrospective, the team should have an improvement plan for the next sprint - it is formed from what was produced in a green hat. I will not write about how the plan of improvement based on the results of the retrospective should look like - in the framework of this article this task is not worth it.
The above is a small description of how you can conduct a retrospective on the method of six hats. I hope that the article helped to discover something new for myself and / or structure the existing perception. It was not the purpose to tell what a retrospective is, and even the goal to write instructions on how to conduct a retrospective using the six hats method did not stand, I just wanted to tell you what happens like this - know this and use this knowledge. Cool and fun retrospectives to you :)
PS The way it looked from us:
It will be interesting to those who are looking for new ways to conduct retrospectives, who are interested in teamwork, approaches to making decisions and generating ideas.
The purpose of the text is to tell what this method is, on the basis of a simple example, show how it can be used to organize a retrospective; arouse interest in the reader for further self-study of this method.
Instead of intro
The idea of ​​using the six hats method to conduct a retrospective came up when I was looking for interesting options for conducting retrospectives for student developers: the guys had the task of making a student portal, sprint = 1 week, at the end of the week - a retrospective of one pair (a couple - 1.5 hours). I really wanted to organize a couple in such a format, in order to interest even those who are not actively participating in the direct development, and those for whom the process of developing the portal did not cause any inspiration. Another of the important conditions is to share the knowledge that the guys could use in the future, including in their daily life (as it turned out, none of those present had heard about this method before a couple).
')
What is the six hats method
On the method of six hats quite a lot has been written in various sources and in relation to solving a wide variety of problems. Below I only briefly tell you what it is.
The six hats method is a method of organizing thinking , one of the popular ways of brainstorming.
It is no secret that human thinking is very chaotic: here are emotions mixed with common sense, and intuition, and facts. And what if the next time when you need to make a decision or generate an idea, consistently apply: facts; the senses; critical thinking; positive view of the problem; creative thinking? If we speak in the context of the method, try on each of the six hats: white (information and facts), red (emotions and feelings), black (critical judgment), yellow (optimistic), green (creativity). There is also a blue hat - it discusses the organization of the process of consistent “fitting” of hats (for more information, for example, in an article on Wikipedia, each of the six hats is well described and examples are given).
Cool, and how it will help with the retrospective?
In the most uncomplicated understanding of the Retrospective - a meeting with the project team to complete the sprint to discuss this very sprint, its results : the classic “What was good?”, “What were the problems”, “What ideas for improvement?”, “What was planned for the next sprint?". Those. It is necessary to voice and realize with the team the problems that the team faced during the sprint, to note positive moments, to figure out how to live efficiently further, and it is very important that no team member stay away from the discussion.
And cool to look at the last sprint from different positions and, if possible, do not miss anything important. I’m not being fooled if I say that a retrospective is also an opportunity to rally a team. And the six-hat method can be an effective tool in all of this.
For example, I will tell how it happened with us. First of all, it was very important that the guys did not forget what the purpose of our meeting was. To do this, for example, you can put a plan of retrospectives before your eyes:
All this is the main purpose of the retrospective (taken from here ).
Well, the six hats method is what will help this goal to be achieved, and here it’s time to explain to the team what it is - this method and why we need it. Here, I think, it suffices to restrict ourselves to a concise explanation of minutes 4 with brief simple examples (more understandable than with the direct immersion into the retrospective method of six hats, it will still not be possible at this stage). So that the information is not lost in the minds and no more time was spent on questions, you can hang a simple cheat sheet before your eyes, for example:
After the team has a general idea of ​​the method, it's time to dive into it and start with a blue hat.
Blue hat = management
As I noted above, the blue hat is the organization and discussion of the process, in our case a retrospective. In the context of ajil, a blue hat is a scram master's hat for the duration of the entire retrospective (it is he who organizes the process of discussion and monitors its consistency and effectiveness).
At this step, you need to tell how today the retrospective will be conducted according to the method, for example: the team will try on each of the hats in turn, this will help you to look at different retrospective aspects from different angles (the ones in the picture above). It is very important to limit the time in each of the hats (how much - depends on what the duration of the retrospective is planned initially) - so the team will have time to discuss the important and not have time to plunge into unnecessary jungle. Well, do not forget to leave time for debriefing.
It is important that all information obtained in retrospect was recorded, and when using the six hats method, it is also structured. To this end, I brought to the marker slide:
- it is assumed that all voiced thoughts will be recorded under each of the hats (depending on which hat the thought was generated).
White hat = information and facts
Here everyone voices facts about the current sprint, for example:
- We did not have time to do such and such tasks,
- The show went well, the customer was satisfied,
- Kohl (Peter, Kayum) was thrown on the frontend, because the guys did not have time.
The facts must be objective, there may be both positive and negative - it is important to separate them from each other.
Red hat = emotions and feelings
In this hat, team members voice their feelings from the last sprint, demonstrate emotions (it is important that there is no personal transition). Like facts, emotions and feelings can be as positive as negative, but most importantly, clearly articulated.
Critical judgment
Here you can throw your eyes on the already recorded facts and criticize them (objectively criticize). For example,
- If during the planning of tasks the skills of the performers were taken into account, then we would not spend time trying to teach Petya how to work with the assembly system,
- If the quality of user cases were higher, then so much time would not have been spent trying to figure it out (it should be indicated what “quality of user cases is higher”!),
etc.
Yellow hat = optimism
In this hat, we highlight the positive moments: what was good in the sprint (“As a result of the sprint, the team worked perfectly”, “Petya, it turns out, is a cool front man! He really helped us with such and such a task”, “The show was great, we are great” that it will be good (“With such a front man as Peter ...” - well, you understood).
Green hat = creativity
By this stage, the team has already recorded the facts about the work during the sprint, highlighted the minuses and pros. It's time to look at all this again: how to avoid voiced minuses in the next sprint? How not to lose and use the advantages in the next sprint? Here we generate and fix ideas on how to improve the team’s work for the next sprint.
Summarizing
According to the results of the retrospective, the team should have an improvement plan for the next sprint - it is formed from what was produced in a green hat. I will not write about how the plan of improvement based on the results of the retrospective should look like - in the framework of this article this task is not worth it.
Instead of conclusion
The above is a small description of how you can conduct a retrospective on the method of six hats. I hope that the article helped to discover something new for myself and / or structure the existing perception. It was not the purpose to tell what a retrospective is, and even the goal to write instructions on how to conduct a retrospective using the six hats method did not stand, I just wanted to tell you what happens like this - know this and use this knowledge. Cool and fun retrospectives to you :)
PS The way it looked from us:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/332264/
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