🙏💖 Gratitude Garden
Gather in our gratitude garden to sow appreciation, prune neglect, and nurture ongoing thankfulness, aligning our sprint spirit with agile values.
Template Columns
🌱 Plant New Thanks
Identify fresh ways to express appreciation moving forward.
Base column: Start🚫 End Neglect
Highlight habits that diminish gratitude and agree to drop them.
Base column: Stop💖 Keep Thankful
Maintain practices that foster appreciation and positivity.
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
A gratitude‑focused retrospective where the team plants new appreciation ideas, stops neglectful habits, and keeps thank‑you practices alive.
When to use this template
Use when the team needs to boost morale, reinforce positive behaviors, or reconnect with agile values after a stressful sprint.
How to facilitate
Set the stage by reminding the group of the purpose: cultivating gratitude and aligning with agile values
Create three virtual columns – Plant New Thanks, End Neglect, Keep Thankful – and give each participant virtual sticky notes
Ask everyone to write individual gratitude ideas or observations on separate notes and place them in the appropriate column
Facilitate a round‑robin walk‑through of each column, inviting brief explanations and grouping similar items
Vote on the top two items in each column, turn them into concrete sprint actions, and capture owners and due dates
Pro Tips
Encourage specific, behavior‑focused gratitude statements rather than vague praise to make actions actionable
Allocate a quick “appreciation shout‑out” at the start of the next sprint meeting to reinforce the Plant New Thanks items
Use a timer for each column discussion to keep energy high and prevent over‑analysis
FAQ
What if team members are uncomfortable sharing gratitude publicly?
Allow anonymous sticky notes or a private chat submission that the facilitator can post, ensuring everyone can contribute without pressure.
How do we prevent the session from turning into a simple thank‑you round?
Focus the discussion on concrete behaviors and future actions, and limit each explanation to 30 seconds before moving on.
What if we run out of time?
Prioritize the top‑voted items in each column and defer lower‑priority ideas to a follow‑up board or the next retrospective.
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At a glance
- Duration
45–60 min
- Team Size
4-12 people
- Columns
3 columns
- Base Format
Start, Stop, Continue
Tags
Ready to get started?
Use this template to run your next retrospective