Retrospective
Retrospective is an opportunity to learn and improve from past experience. It is a time set aside –outside of a day to day routine to reflect on the past events and behaviors. In simple form you answer three question.
What did we do well?
What did we do poorly?
What will we do differently next time to improve? There are 4 steps in the retrospective rituals
Prepare
Hold Retrospective Session
Analyze Results
Pick a few issues to work on and create concrete action plan of how you’ll address them.
Take Actions
Since there can be varieties of events for example Diagnose of a special disease, sudden death of a patient, end of a project, completion of a mile stone etc. Therefore each retrospective must be designed to meet the specific goals and needs. A good retrospective looks backward at what happened in the past and forward at what should be done in the future. The Key is to take actions on the learning to improve the future. Any failures should be analyzed with the perspective to learn for future and not to blame anybody.
A successful retrospective can be the catalyst for four types of improvements: Individual Learning, Team Learning, Organization Process Improvements and Organization Behavior Change. Retrospective can also address the Human situation that is often present at the end of a project.
In Medicine, retrospective term is used in describing a look back at a patient’s medical history or lifestyle.
Example 1 While working as a physician I treated a young and otherwise healthy patient who came to