First blog of the New Year!
I had a good Christmas and New Year. Who wouldn’t with three weeks off work and a trip the New York included within that 
New York was awesome!! My friend Sarah and I went for 5 days and pretty much immersed ourselves into being total tourists and ladies of leisure, who shopped and wined and dined.
I have never known weather like it it, minus 16 wind chill and I couldn’t bear to have any flesh on display.
We didn’t let it spoil our trip though and managed to do everything we wanted. We both agreed that the Circle line boat trip was the high light, because we saw so many of the sights and got classic views of the iconic skyline. The picture above shows the Hudson river full of ice and it physically moved like lava.
We also managed a cheeky ride around central park in a bright pink horse and carriage.
Alas though to pay for these pleasures I must work (until my millionaire comes along )
I am meeting a new team next week and I have been asked to run a retro for for them. Normally I can just pull one of these out of my tool box, but this team has been together a while and their ScrumMaster already seems to have been quite creative with them. Now this left me in a quandary as I don’t want to do just a run of the mill one! There are so many great websites out there and I got lots of inspiration but I just wanted something different, fun and original.
As I sat ‘hard at work’ on the sofa looking for a movie to watch, inspiration hit me. Why not use a movie to form the basis of my retro.
Hmmm, now what is a really cheesy film that is legendary?
Enter ‘Top Gun’
“ I feel the need, the need for speed!!”
Key questions I am asking:
- Top Gun Logo – What does it mean to be ‘Top Gun’?
- F14A Tomcat – Do we have the right gear?
- Radar – What challenges are there coming up?
- USS Enterprise – What are we stable in?
- Explosion – What went wrong?
- Migs – What are the things dragging us down?
- Goose & Ice – How are we as a team?
Ultimately you can pick any questions you want to drive from the team, but we are looking for a good mix of positive and areas of opportunity. I am with this team for two days and so I am looking to drive the opportunities where I can help them quite quickly.
Now, we all know that I am a little bit geeky and so for extra effect I have downloaded the soundtrack to play in the back ground. The first track is my 5 minute time box!
I am now thinking what other films can I start incorporating into a retrospective? I need to find that predominantly female team and bust out one on the classic ‘Dirty Dancing’. Not sure my usual demographic would appreciate that one!
So todays message is go out there and be creative, bring some fun into the team whilst harvesting some real data to help teams go from good to great.
I will let you know how my retro went, even if they hate it, I had fun creating it. If you want my images to print I am happy to send across and so you only have to ask.
PS: If you see me, ask me how I embarrassed my friend by suggesting a new flow based system going through security in London Heathrow In fairness he did adopt it…
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