Retrospectives - the secret to high performing teams

by Steven Ma, Chief Operating Officer, Comet CX
Line editing and transcription assistance by ChatGPT

At Comet CX, we share practical approaches that help teams work better together.

One of the most effective practices we use to improve productivity and team wellbeing is a simple, recurring session supported by coaching and behavioural change. It runs once a week, takes less than an hour, and delivers compounding benefits over time.

This practice is called a retrospective.

Retrospectives are used by organisations of all sizes, from startups and scaleups to large enterprises, and across industries ranging from technology to energy, hospitality, and defence. They are simple in structure, but powerful when applied well.

There are a few important caveats. A retrospective is less about the meeting itself and more about the cultural shift it enables. Without that shift, the meeting quickly loses value. When facilitated well, however, it creates space for honest reflection and focused action.

A good retrospective benefits from a facilitator with strong emotional intelligence. Set aside 45 minutes each week, keep it regular, and run it in a setting that feels less formal where possible.

A commonly used structure follows five steps.

First, open the session by setting expectations. The goal is to share observations, reflect without blame, and commit to one meaningful action before the next meeting.

Second, gather data. Ask the team to reflect on what slowed them down, what reduced enjoyment, and what contributed to productivity or satisfaction over the past week. Team members capture their reflections individually and group them into these themes.

Third, generate insight by reviewing and clustering the items together. This stage focuses on building shared understanding, not on jumping to solutions.

Fourth, decide action. Identify the single action that feels most central and achievable. Avoid trying to solve everything. Agree on ownership, timing, and how progress will be tracked, and treat this commitment with the same priority as other work.

Finally, close the session by thanking the team, confirming the action, and reinforcing the next meeting.

This approach draws on the work of Esther Derby and Diana Larsen, among others. There are many variations, and teams should adapt the format to suit their context.

Beyond delivery improvement, retrospectives can also be used to focus on team health and wellbeing, allowing organisations to use one familiar meeting format to support continuous improvement across multiple aspects of work.