Three Circles of Concern Retrospective Retrospective

What is this activity?

This technique is based on the Circle of Control, Circle of Influence, and Circle of Concern approach to analyzing challenges one is facing (the idea first appeared in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey). It helps the team to identify what concerns they can address and what concerns should be left on their own. It will help team members realize where they should spend most of their efforts when trying to solve various challenges.

Template created by: Daria Bagina - Template has been used 14 times

Three Circles of Concern Retrospective Template

🏆 Recognizing Achievements

What you are proud of this Sprint personally and as a team. Add kudos and thanks to others.

😞 Issues and Concerns

What challenges are we facing that haven't been resolved so far?

1️⃣ Area of Control

2️⃣ Area of Influence

✅ Action Items

Concrete action items the team wants to take into the next Sprint to address concerns and issues.

How to conduct this activity

Complete one step at a time to focus on the most important things. 1. Start by collecting notes in Recognizing Achievements and Issues & Concerns columns first. Ask the participants to not use other columns for now. 2. Together with the team, review the kudos and achievements the team is proud of. Celebrate together! 3. With the team's help identify challenges from the Issues & Concerns column that the team has full control over and move them to the Area of Control. Use voting tools to facilitate this. 4. Discuss what can be done to resolve those challenges and identify concrete action items. Put them in the Action Items column. 5. If time permits, identify challenges the team can influence and move them to the Area of Influence. Decide what challenges the team wishes to invest their time in. Use voting tools to facilitate this. 6. Discuss what can be done to make a positive impact and identify concrete action items and add them to the Action Items column. 7. Review notes left in the Issues & Concerns. Agree as a team to set these items to the back burner for now since nothing can be done. Discuss how you can mitigate the risks, work with what you have, and workaround the team can implement.