We run our team retrospective on a Friday afternoon and it’s usually the last thing we do as a team before we start our weekends. To ensure that everyone has the opportunity to start their weekend in a positive way we like to structure our retrospectives in the following way:

1. Focus on the constructive, challenging or negative discussions first – this might be your what’s not working or what’s confusing to us streams, if you’re running what I like to call an “old school” retrospective. Take actions (if there are any) out of each discussion and remember to share them with them team, or make them visual on your wall or board.
2. Focus on the good news at the end – this might be your what’s working well stream. By doing so it’s gives everyone an opportunity to share the things they’ve learnt, as well as pass on positive feedback to other members of the team.
3. Finally we go around the room and ask what people have planned for the weekend. This gives everyone an insight into what people get up to outside of work and is a really nice way to close out the hard work we’ve all done over the iteration.