Team retro: mechanisms not culprits

You start with the result a person owns. On behaviour you speak only of facts and impact, never character.

Task: A failed project turning into mutual justification.

[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
   - timeline and key decisions
   - information available then
   - controllable versus not
   - mechanisms to change
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.

[Go through each of these]
- agree the timeline first
- ask which point could have gone differently
- two or three mechanism changes with owners
- state which lessons are not acted on

[Process]
1. State the goal and the criteria and have them repeat it back
2. Give resources and authority with checkpoints
3. Feedback as fact and impact plus one specific change
4. Separate cannot from will not
5. Confirm the next date

[Output]
Goal, criteria, checkpoints, feedback, next date.

[Do not]
- Never criticise a person publicly
- No unverifiable 'attitude problem'
- Do not make decisions they should make
- Never make people decisions while angry