🤥🪵 Pinocchio’s Agile Adventure
Let’s embark on a journey from puppet to real agility! Reflect on honesty, growth, and teamwork, and decide what actions will turn us into ‘real’ agile practitioners. Beware of long noses—transparency is key!
Template Columns
✨ Wishing Upon a Star (Start)
Share new practices we should begin to transform into an even better team, as Pinocchio wished to become real.
Base column: Start✂️ Cut the Strings (Stop)
Identify habits, blockers, or fibs we need to leave behind, just as Pinocchio must cut his strings to grow.
Base column: Stop🪵 Honest Efforts (Continue)
Highlight the positive behaviors we should maintain—honesty, teamwork, and learning—just like Pinocchio’s journey toward becoming real.
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
The Pinocchio’s Agile Adventure retrospective invites your team to reflect on honesty, growth, and teamwork by identifying new practices, old habits to drop, and behaviors worth sustaining. This playful, story-driven format helps teams embark on a journey to become more transparent and genuinely agile.
When to use this template
Use this template after a sprint or project where the team wants to improve transparency, encourage honest conversations, and focus on meaningful agile growth. It’s particularly effective when teams sense unspoken blockers or need a light-hearted way to discuss tough topics.
How to facilitate
Set the scene by sharing the Pinocchio theme and encourage everyone to think of their agile journey as a transformation toward transparency and teamwork.
Give each participant quiet time to add thoughts in the three columns: what to start doing (wishing upon a star), what to stop (cut the strings), and what to continue (honest efforts).
Invite team members to read out or cluster similar cards together, prompting open discussion around each theme and encouraging honest, constructive feedback.
Facilitate deeper conversation around difficult topics, especially in the ‘stop’ column – emphasize honesty without blame and ask clarifying questions to uncover root causes.
As a group, agree on a set of actionable next steps, making sure every action is specific and assigned an owner where relevant.
Wrap up by reflecting on how transparency and small, honest changes can help the team become even ‘more real’ over time.
Pro Tips
Use storytelling (Pinocchio analogies) to make tough feedback feel lighter and more relatable for the team.
Focus on psychological safety by modeling open honesty yourself and recognizing every contribution, especially vulnerable shares.
Encourage people to identify even small ‘white lies’ or unhelpful habits—these often hide the biggest improvement opportunities.
Turn actions into experiments, not mandates. Invite the team to review and learn from these changes next sprint.
FAQ
What if team members struggle to be honest in the 'stop' column?
Foster psychological safety by sharing first, inviting anonymous input, and reminding everyone that growth needs vulnerability. Frame stops as team challenges, not individual blame.
How do I keep the session from feeling childish or off-topic?
Explain the analogy at the start and connect each column to real agile principles. Use the theme for engagement, but focus the discussion on meaningful team improvements.
How do we turn wishes into real action items?
Guide the team to craft specific, actionable, and measurable steps for each wish. Assign an owner and agree on a review date to check progress.
At a glance
- Duration
45–60 min
- Team Size
4-10 people
- Columns
3 columns
- Base Format
Start, Stop, Continue
Tags
Ready to get started?
Use this template to run your next retrospective