Preparing for a Liftoff Retrospective

Throughout your liftoff and as part of the wrap-up, capture feedback from the participants. You can send out a survey after the liftoff and ask for anecdotes and comments about team members’ experiences. The responses you receive provide data and clues about how to improve on future liftoffs.

Ask the chartering group for help in evaluating the event. If you’d like explicit feedback on specific sections, ask for that, too. If you have multiple liftoff activities over several days, you might want feedback after each activity. Or you can wait until the end to gather all the feedback at once. Each choice has advantages and disadvantages. You get fresher impressions from feedback gathered after each section. On the other hand, people won’t have the benefit of the whole picture. If you wait to request all evaluation at the end, people will understand how all the parts fit, but they may have forgotten details about specific activities. It’s up to you to choose the right evaluation cadence.

As a liftoff wrap-up activity, a modified Return on Time Invested (ROTI) exercise is an easy way for participants to give both qualitative (sticky-note comments) and quantitative (voting with dots) responses. The simple format helps mitigate resistance to collecting data from multiple sessions. If your liftoff involves a single team, prepare a single ROTI chart. If your liftoff includes multiple teams, prepare one ROTI chart for every dozen or so participants so that responding on the chart can go quickly. By this time, everyone is most likely ready to leave.

To start the ROTI exercise, find a large space on a white board, flip chart, or multiple flip charts, as needed. Draw the diagram shown in the ROTI figure that follows, leaving out the dots and squares (sticky notes) for now.

Show the blank ROTI diagram to the group and describe the scale:

• 0 = It was a waste and we received no benefit from the time invested.

• 2 = We broke even and received benefit equal to the time.

• 4 = We received a highly beneficial return that greatly exceeded our expectations for what was possible in the time we invested.

Call the group’s attention to the three areas across the bottom of the diagram: Drop, Add, and Keep. Explain that you would like more-detailed feedback placed there.

Give one sticky dot (or marker) to each participant. Ask them to place their dots on the chart next to the number that reflects their experiences. Review the dots with the group. Ask those who rated the liftoff a 2 or higher to tell what benefits they received. Then ask those who rated the liftoff a 0 to 1 what they wanted and didn’t receive.

Next, hand out four to six sticky notes to each person and ask them to write feedback comments and place them on the Drop, Add, and Keep portions of the chart.

If your ROTI is on a whiteboard, take a photo of the completed chart to take to the liftoff retrospective and to use for planning future liftoffs. Otherwise, bring the chart(s).