Change 2013
Celebration Grid
A retrospective grid that celebrates the right things: learning, whether it came from mistakes, experiments, or good practice.
What it is
A six-cell grid crossing behavior (mistakes, experiments, practices) with outcome (failure, success). The insight is in the middle column: experiments deserve celebration whichever way they land, because that's where learning lives. Failed practice and lucky mistakes get honest labels instead of blame or applause.
Reach for it when
- Retrospectives that celebrate outcomes and accidentally punish experiments
- A team that ships fine but hasn't tried anything new in a quarter
- A post-incident review that needs a blame-free structure with teeth
Running it
- Draw the grid; walk the room through the six cells with one example each.
- Everyone posts the sprint's events into cells silently, 10 minutes.
- Discuss the experiments column first, then failed practices. 30 minutes total.
- Close by picking next sprint's one new experiment. The grid should cause one.
Watch out: If every note lands in "success from good practice", the team is playing it safe or editing history. Say so out loud.
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Comments & Discussion
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Recent Comments (3)
This workshop was incredibly effective for our remote team! We adapted it slightly for a virtual setting and it worked wonderfully. The key was breaking into smaller breakout rooms.
Great resource! One tip: prepare all materials the day before to avoid any last-minute rushes.
Used this for our quarterly planning session. The structured approach really helped us stay on track!