RRR Retro and IPL for Rewards and Recognition

When I first started working as a Scrum Master, I asked my mentor whether people thought retrospectives were interesting or boring. He advised me that keeping current affairs as the topic of discussion is ideal for engaging attendees and achieving a high retention rate in these kinds of gatherings. That stuck in my head for a while, and ever since, I've tried to build new retro themes, rewards programs, and recognition events based on trending topics, or modify the ones that already exist. I also like to create outcome-based games that are entertaining and exciting.

RRR Retro and IPL for Rewards and Recognition

All my team members got excited when RRR won the Oscar for best song last year, and they started talking about it even during the Scrum calls. I decided to strike the iron while it's still hot by encouraging our teams to join the retro for the RRR celebration. Of course, it’s our team's RRR event celebration.       

RRR: Rise Roar Revolt  

How It Works

Team members are to be split into two teams: Fire and Water (If you've watched the film, you'll be able to figure out that Fire and Water represent the two main characters )

Rise: Each team must collaborate and come up with a few aspects that they believe they, as a team, appreciated, went out of the box, and celebrated while working in the previous Sprint. Used Metaphor – Rise like a Sun. (However long the night, the Sun will always rise.)

Roar: Think thoroughly and discuss the things that held them back from moving forward, such as barriers or areas where they could have done better, etc. Used Metaphor – Roar like a Lion. (Attack on your goals. Hunt them like food for your living.)

Revolt: Not on the fellow teammates but revolt against the wastages or the gaps that the teams are facing and that they believe can be removed, what do they want to unlearn that is hindering their performance? Used metaphor –  Whirlwinds of Revolt. (Against the whirlwinds in our project causing a hurdle for achieving the Sprint Goals.)

Note: Metaphors are extremely useful. In Agile methods, especially eXtreme Programming, a metaphor of the project is developed to help guide a team toward a good architecture and a clearer way to discuss the structure of the software with the client.

A total of 15 minutes can be allowed for three discussion items, with each team required to come up with at least 5 points. Later, all the points were compiled, and when everyone returned to the common meeting room, I began reviewing all the points, beginning with Rise, then Roar, and finally Revolt. Based on the availability, you can make changes to time, and teams and can do it one after the other.

People from Fire can challenge team members in Water for the points they mentioned, and vice versa (especially for the points mentioned in the Reflect). I ensured that the discussion adhered to the main Scrum value of Respect by setting up a context at the start of the meeting, as I always do.

After completing the discussion, I created a confluence page with all the action points by duly assigning the item to a concerned team member.

I also ensured that in the next Sprint, all the action items were discussed at the beginning of the meeting by adding another R (Retrospect)

Note: If you don’t want to go with the movie name you have a number of choices with the letter R like (Rejoice, Reflect, and Recycle). Try asking Google that begin with the letter "R" and then select three that would also fit the retrospective name (RRR), which can be a topic for continuous improvement as part of inspection and adaptation.                         

IPL: Idea Performer Leader 

With the ongoing IPL, a carnival for cricket fans, one might try an easy technique that might enhance how you reward or recognize team talent and motivate teams to attend retros. I worked on this theme with my team members throughout the last IPL season. 

As most of you know, The Indian Premier League is a Twenty20 cricket league held annually in India and played by ten city-based franchisee teams. 

To increase Scrum team motivation, I modified the IPL acronym to include the three words that represent continuous improvement ideas, key performance talents, and future leaders who develop stronger and more productive teams to recognize and reward them accordingly.

At the end of each retro, we set aside some time to recognize and congratulate a few "Outstanding Players" who went above and beyond and provided Idea(s) for Continuous Improvement in the current Sprint, as well as who has been an outstanding Performer and has demonstrated the capabilities of a future Leader. 

How It Works

Ideas

Whenever someone has an idea for relentless improvement, they should submit it by email to the scrum master or by documenting it in the Ideas spreadsheet on a shared site with all the necessary information, such as What is the main idea behind this? What challenge is there right now? What benefits would the merit team receive from putting this proposal into practice? When and how can we make this concept a reality?

Performer

The team will choose the Sprint Performer of the Season based on a number of factors, including performance, creative and proactive thinking, interpersonal skills, and demonstrated proficiency in testing and development.

Team Lead

There is always one team member who can really show off their leadership skills. Throughout the Sprint(s), they will exhibit these attributes. Scrum Masters need to keep a watchful eye out for these traits and select the next generation of leaders in a way that will inspire them even more. These may come from the non-team lead developers or, if the team already has leads, from the current Team Leads. This leader will agree to lead the next Sprint daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and other training based on their capability.

Runs (Points) 

Everyone will have 0, 1, 2, 4, or 6 run cards for each of the two selections (IP). If you're doing it virtually, anyone can submit a chat message using Microsoft Teams or Zoom, but numbers are key. One run, two runs, four, and six. Of course, one can adjust these based on their needs and to avoid confusion we can stick with 4 and 6. Even if you choose to go with only 4 and 6 runs, the winner will be the one with the most runs. 

If someone provides zero, it indicates he or she must give a reason for bowling them out for a duck. If you think 0 will create a controversy and you have sensitive team members avoid  0. Similarly, team members who gave the runs should provide a one-sentence explanation for their decision.

I hope you and your teams will try to have fun, productive, and houseful retros by trying out these two simple formats.

For any suggestions or appreciation, please provide your feedback to me at paravasthu81@gmail.com or LinkedIn: .