Taking time to reflect and learn from experience - and sometimes failure - is incredibly valuable. Analysing the reasons for successes or failures helps us repeat the good and avoid the bad.

We often start off a workshop with a review of what's gone well and not so well during the past 6-12 months. Often the successful projects are those where everyone had a shared understanding of the key priorities and had developed good systems to get the work done between them. The less successful projects are invariably where those things don't exist.

It's communication that helps here - purposely developing a shared understanding of priorities through discussion and clarification, and working together to make sure everyone is clear on roles, responsibilities and working practices that will benefit the team as a whole.

We guide teams through a series of tailored retrospective questions to help them review their work from various angles. We challenge participants to dig deeper to reveal the root causes of events and key learnings they can extract.

Useful retrospective questions include:

APPRAISAL OF EFFORTS

• What went well?
• What are we proud of?
• What impact did we make?
• What would we go back and change if we could?
• Where did we compromise?
• What have we learned?
• How did we embody our core values / purpose?
• What are others in the market doing?

CRITICAL THINKING

• Where could we have been more decisive / dynamic?
• Where did we get lucky?
• What needs changing?
• What mistakes did we make?
• What expertise do we need to bring in?
• What do we need to learn?
• Where are we at risk? What are our weaknesses?
• What do we find difficult?
• How resistant to change are we?

LOOKING AHEAD

• What new opportunities are there?
• What unsolved problems are there?
• What are our biggest priorities?
• What new thinking do we have?
• What do we find easy?
• What’s likely to happen over the next 12 months?
• How are we placed to cope / profit?
• How adaptable / flexible are we?
• Which relationships are strong? Which need work?
• Are we being ambitious enough? What are our stretch goals?

CLEARING ROADBLOCKS

• What blocks our progress?
• Are we doing anything we shouldn’t?
• What would we start / stop doing if we could?

GETTING PERSONAL

• Are you proud of our progress?
• What have you found personally difficult?
• What’s your personal highlight?
• What’s your personal goal?
• How will you feel if we achieve these goals?
• What difference will it make to other employees?
• How can we better embody our values as leaders?