Make Your Retrospectives More Impactful

For many teams, the retrospective feels like a waste of time, a missed opportunity, or just another meeting where nothing changes. Yes, the Batman theme might have been fun, or using LEGO bricks sparked a good conversation, but did it really lead to change?

When working with teams, I still find that most retrospectives aren’t as meaningful as they could be. During retrospectives, teams often…
❌ Focus on what’s most visible or recent, without digging into what’s driving the challenges.
❌ Miss the root causes, jumping straight to solutions without fully understanding why the problem exists.
❌ Generate vague improvement actions; well-intentioned but fuzzy steps like “communicate better” or “be more proactive.”
❌ Rely on gut feeling instead of data, which often reflects individual perceptions rather than the team’s reality.
❌ Lack a feedback loop, never revisiting past actions to see what impact they had, making it impossible to know if change is happening.

And that’s a shame because retrospectives can be a great chance to spot what’s holding the team back, agree on clear actions, and make real progress together.

What if... you give Action Research a try during your next retrospective?

Don’t worry; anyone can do it. It’s not rocket science 😉, and you don’t need a shiny certificate. Action Research is a practical, cyclical approach where you gather data, reflect on it together, decide on concrete actions, and then check back later to see what’s changed.

With Columinity, this becomes even easier. It provides clear insights into your team’s effectiveness, helps you identify patterns, and tracks the impact of your improvement actions over time. You get meaningful conversations backed by evidence, data, and scientific research, without losing the human touch.

Here’s how it works in a retrospective:
1️⃣ Self-diagnose as a team. Before the retro, each team member completes an anonymous questionnaire. You instantly get a team report with strengths and areas for improvement.
2️⃣ Include other perspectives. Invite stakeholders and supporters (leaders, managers, coaches) to share their view. Their input adds valuable context.
3️⃣ Inspect and analyze together. In the retro, review the report to uncover root causes and draw inspiration from evidence-based recommendations.
4️⃣ Agree on actions and track them. Decide on clear, measurable improvement actions, then revisit the data in the next retro to see what’s changed.
5️⃣ Scale the impact. As your team benefits, encourage other teams to try it, tackling bigger organizational challenges together.

Interested in learning more? Check these articles:

• How to practice Action Research with Columinity?
• Workshop - Action Research with Columinity
• Action Research - A practical and empowering approach to systemic change

What's not to like? 😃

Columinity improves team and organizational effectiveness through data-informed decisions and scientific insights. You can diagnose one or many teams, receive evidence-based feedback, and resolve broader organizational issues. It helps to make decisions based on quantitative and qualitative data and insights from research, instead of only on gut feeling, opinions, or intuition.

Even better, Columinity offers a free version for individual teams. Ideal to get started! With the paid version, you can track patterns across teams, making (shared) retrospectives even more powerful!