☎️📞 Telephone Game
Let's dial into our team's workflow! Like a game of telephone, messages can get lost or transformed. We'll tune in to our successes, disconnect bad habits, and keep the clear signals going for true agile communication.
Template Columns
📲 New Connections (Start)
Suggest new lines of communication or activities we should initiate for clearer teamwork.
Base column: Start🚫 Dropped Calls (Stop)
Identify patterns or practices that distort our messages and should be phased out.
Base column: Stop📡 Clear Signals (Continue)
Highlight effective habits that keep our messages sharp and collaboration strong.
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
The Telephone Game retrospective uses the metaphor of telephone communication to explore how messages get lost or clarified within the team's workflow. It helps identify what to start, stop, and continue to keep communication clear and effective.
When to use this template
Use this retrospective when your team is experiencing miscommunications, frequent handoff issues, or struggling to align. It's especially valuable after sprints that highlighted process confusion or mixed messages.
How to facilitate
Kick off with a short introduction explaining the telephone game metaphor and why clear communication matters for agile teams.
Give everyone a few minutes to individually reflect and add notes to each column: suggest new connections to start, call out dropped calls to stop, and celebrate clear signals to continue.
Review contributions as a team, discussing examples of unclear or successful communication, and exploring underlying causes of dropped calls.
Group similar items together and invite the team to clarify any ambiguous notes, focusing on how communication was affected.
Decide on a few concrete action items: initiatives to start, habits to stop, and practices to reinforce, assigning clear owners where possible.
Wrap up by summarizing key insights and confirming how progress on action items will be tracked in the next sprint.
Pro Tips
Encourage teammates to provide real examples of muddled or clear messaging to ground the conversation in reality.
Use humor and the telephone game analogy to keep the mood light, even when discussing communication problems.
Take the opportunity to map out where miscommunication typically happens (e.g., handoffs, meetings) as part of your discussion.
If possible, gather asynchronous feedback ahead of time from quieter team members or those in different time zones.
FAQ
How can I avoid people feeling blamed when discussing communication breakdowns?
Keep the tone constructive and focus on processes, not individuals. Use the telephone game metaphor to depersonalize mistakes and keep the session solution-oriented.
What if we get too many suggestions in each column?
Cluster similar notes together and prioritize as a group. Focus on picking a few high-impact actions, rather than trying to tackle everything at once.
How do we make sure new communication habits stick?
Assign action owners and agree on check-in points for the next sprint to reinforce follow-through. Consider gentle reminders or lightweight tracking systems.
Want a custom template?
Create a retrospective template tailored to your team's needs with our AI-powered generator
At a glance
- Duration
30–45 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