💰📊 End of Financial Year Fest
As we close the books on another fiscal year, let's audit our wins, losses, and frustrations like true agile accountants! Reflect on profits (successes), losses (challenges), and those taxing moments, so we can all invest in a better project portfolio next year.
Template Columns
🤑 Profitable Gains
Share the wins, successful investments, and positive returns from our year-long project journey.
Base column: Glad📉 Loss Statements
Discuss any setbacks, deficits, or downturns that caused setbacks during our sprints.
Base column: Sad💸 Taxing Troubles
Vent about frustrating overhead, bureaucratic red tape, or costly mistakes that made the year feel taxing.
Base column: MadAbout this template
End of Financial Year Fest is a retrospective that invites teams to audit their annual journey, celebrating wins, analyzing losses, and addressing frustrations to invest in a stronger future together.
When to use this template
This retrospective is ideal at the end of a fiscal year or major project milestone when your team wants to review the bigger picture, capture valuable lessons, and prioritize improvements for next year.
How to facilitate
Open by setting the tone: explain the symbolism behind the financial column names and encourage open, honest sharing with a spirit of learning.
Invite team members to add notes to the Profitable Gains column, focusing on successes, high-impact decisions, and actions that paid off.
Next, have everyone contribute to the Loss Statements column, highlighting setbacks and where returns did not meet expectations.
Move to Taxing Troubles, prompting team members to call out any recurring frustrations, blockers, or bureaucratic challenges that added unnecessary effort.
Give the team a few minutes to silently review all notes, then facilitate a group discussion for each column, seeking patterns and key themes.
Encourage the team to brainstorm actionable insights and investments for next year, assigning owners to prioritized actions.
Close by inviting a short round of appreciations or lessons learned, ensuring everyone ends on a constructive note.
Pro Tips
Encourage team members to come prepared with examples or data from the past year to enrich discussion.
Make discussions in the Loss Statements and Taxing Troubles columns solution-oriented to avoid negativity loops.
Capture agreed actions in a shared document or backlog and set reminders to review progress quarterly.
Consider anonymizing input if your team finds it difficult to discuss losses or frustrations openly.
FAQ
What if our team is uncomfortable discussing 'losses' or failures?
Reframe setbacks as learning opportunities and lead by example. Normalize open reflection by acknowledging that every team has room to improve.
How do we ensure this doesn't turn negative or blame-focused?
Guide the discussion towards learning and future improvements, and remind everyone the goal is collective growth, not assigning fault.
How do we handle large lists of issues or wins without running long?
Group similar items together and focus on the ones with the most impact, ensuring productive use of time.
What can we do if the same 'taxing troubles' persist every year?
Use this as an opportunity to escalate recurring themes to leadership or adapt your workflow for lasting change.
At a glance
- Duration
45–60 min
- Team Size
4-12 people
- Columns
3 columns
- Base Format
Glad, Sad, Mad
Tags
Ready to get started?
Use this template to run your next retrospective