Hi SM’s,
I have a member who is suggesting adding kudos to the sprint retrospective They want to give recognition to certain members during the sprint.
What do you think? Should it be documented or just keep it verbal or private.
I do know people love recognition. But I don’t want other members to get discouraged for their efforts
I think the devil is in the details; or rather
– expressing gratitude to people is good
– awarding and competing for “status points” tends to be not-so-good
And of course, context is king.
In terms of a “coaching hook” this is perhaps a way to unpack key communication and messaging skills for the team. To that end as with any retro feedback it can be a good idea to dig a bit deeper, as a team, to find the underlying systemic issue:
– what’s the problem that “Kudos points” solve?
– if that’s the surface issue, what do you think the root cause is (Ishikawa fishbone?)
– with that root cause, what does the restated problem statement look like?
– is that something the team owns?
If the team owns it, then it’s their job to think about what success might look like, potential negative consequences of their solution, and leading indicators for their success and failure conditions – and then run the experiment…
I tend to use a problem-statement format that is a bit like how we construct risks, with a triggering, contributing factors and a negative outcome that can be quantified.
WHEN AND THEN