Add the remaining actionable items to the retrospective backlog to be discussed for a future sprint. Then create a list of actionable solutions for each statement and ask the team to select the items they want to focus on in the next sprint by voting. Discuss what you could do to prevent these things from happening in the future. The presenter will then reveal to the group which of the statements is false and whether they have guessed or not.Īfter all teammates have passed their turns, collect and categorize all the statements (Truths and Lies) which refer to negative outcomes. If it’s not easy to reach an agreement, have a vote and select the statement with the most votes. Then the group should discuss and choose the one they think is the lie. Give them five minutes to come up with the three statements and write them down on post-its.Įach team member has to present their statements. Then the team will have to guess which of them is a lie. Two of them need to be true and one should be a lie. The game is called Two Truths, One Lie and is quick and easy to play for teams of all maturity stages.Įach team member will have to think of three statements referring to the last sprint. This activity is often used as an ice breaker in its original form, but with a small tweak it becomes a great addition to spice up retro meetings. When we think of the Loss Aversion Theory as a complementary concept to Freud’s Pleasure Principle (the innate human tendency to seek pleasure and avoid pain), it becomes clear how the Pleasure and Gain game could start very important conversations that can change the work a team chooses to do. He discovered that the pain of losing is psychologically more powerful than the pleasure of gaining. This Agile game originates from the Loss Aversion Theory by the psychologist Daniel Kahneman. When everyone has placed their activities, you should discuss what you can do to move each item towards the upper right pleasure/gain magic quadrant. When everyone is ready, you collectively read the items in each section and decide which to leave as a team. Once the drawing is done, each team member writes his or her ideas for each category on a post-it and puts them on the board. More, Keep and Less should be aligned on an axis in this order, and Add can be on a side (see the picture below). Add – a new idea, new activity or process, or something you have seen working before that you would like to start doing.More – something you currently do but you believe will bring more value if you do even more of it.Less – something you currently do but you think you should do less of it.Keep – something that you think your team is doing well and you recognize the value it brings.To play this game, you start by dividing a board into four sections corresponding to the four letters of the name like in the picture below. It's a retrospective activity that helps teams to focus on current activities and align their perceptions of value. The first exercise is called KALM, which stands for Keep, Add, More, Less. To keep things interesting, both virtually and IRL, here are some of our favorite Agile games you can play to spice up your retros! #1 Keep KALM and be Agile Now, when most companies have gone remote, there's an even greater need for strong interaction during virtual meetings. Since retros happen often, it's always a challenge for change agents and Agile practitioners to come up with new and diverse ways of keeping their teammates’ attention. Retros need active participation to ensure your team is on the path to continuous improvement, and Agile games are a great way to make it happen. But just showing up isn't enough engagement is key to the success of the meeting. As a member of an Agile team, you'll spend a lot of time in retrospectives or retros.

Kudos cards