The Natural Disasters Survival retrospective uses a disaster-resilience theme to help teams reflect on highs, lows, and growth opportunities, promoting team adaptability and cohesion.

When to use this template

Choose this format after periods of high stress, unexpected changes, or particularly turbulent sprints to help your team process challenges and celebrate resilience.

How to facilitate

Open with the disaster-survival theme, inviting the team to visualize coming together after a 'storm' and explain the purpose of each column.

Ask team members to submit memories of 'Sunny Skies'—times where successes and small wins shone through the chaos.

Guide the team to candidly share their 'Stormy Challenges', focusing on setbacks and moments that disrupted progress.

Transition to 'Rebuilding Through Resilience', prompting everyone to suggest specific ways to recover, grow, or prevent future setbacks.

Facilitate a group discussion, connecting themes between successes, challenges, and improvement ideas, and encourage team members to build on each other's suggestions.

Prioritize the most actionable improvement ideas and assign ownership if needed.

End with a debrief, inviting the team to reflect on how overcoming adversity can strengthen the group moving forward.

Pro Tips

Leverage the disaster theme to lighten the mood and encourage vulnerability about tough topics.

Start with a quick icebreaker where everyone shares a real or fictional disaster survived to set a playful, open tone.

Encourage storytelling—turning 'disasters' into learning tales increases engagement and retention.

Keep an eye out for underlying patterns across successes and challenges to better target improvement efforts.

FAQ

What if the team feels uncomfortable with the disaster theme?

Check for comfort at the start. If anyone prefers a different approach, you can quickly switch to a neutral metaphor and focus on the insights rather than the theme.

How do we ensure actionable outcomes from this retrospective?

Dedicate time to the 'Rebuilding Through Resilience' column, and encourage the team to brainstorm practical steps. Assign clear owners to key actions.

What if team members focus only on the negatives?

Gently guide the discussion by starting with 'Sunny Skies' and reminding the team to celebrate wins, no matter how small, before delving into challenges.

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At a glance

Duration
45–60 min
Team Size
4-10 people
Columns
3 columns
Base Format
What Went Well, What Went Wrong, What We Want to Improve

Ready to get started?

Use this template to run your next retrospective

🌪️🌊 Natural Disasters Survival

Brace yourselves! In this disaster-themed retrospective, let's weather the storms, celebrate our solid ground, and rebuild stronger than ever. Share the aftershocks (challenges) and silver linings (successes) as we engineer our team's resilience together!

Template Columns

🌤️ Sunny Skies

🌩️ Stormy Challenges

🏗️ Rebuilding Through Resilience

About this template