🦁🐒 Zoo Day Safari
Take a walk on the wild side! Reflect on our team’s journey through the agile jungle, sharing which behaviors to nurture, release, or keep thriving. Let’s make our project a thriving ecosystem!
Template Columns
🌱 Hatch New Habits
Suggest new practices or experiments to introduce to our agile zoo.
Base column: Start🦖 Retire Old Instincts
Identify behaviors or habits that belong in the past and should leave the zoo.
Base column: Stop🦓 Keep the Herd Moving
Share routines and actions that help our team flourish and should remain a staple in our zoo.
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
The Zoo Day Safari retrospective helps teams examine and evolve their working habits by exploring which behaviors to introduce, let go of, or maintain—creating a thriving agile ecosystem.
When to use this template
Use this format after a major sprint, project milestone, or when your team needs to renew focus on healthy collaboration and continuous improvement.
How to facilitate
Open with a fun context, inviting everyone to imagine your team as a unique zoo and explain the three columns and their meanings.
Set ground rules and encourage creative thinking—remind participants there are no bad ideas and playful analogies are welcome.
Ask everyone to reflect privately for a few minutes and add ideas to each column: new habits to hatch, old instincts to retire, and valued routines to keep.
Invite team members to share their thoughts, focusing on the stories or impact behind each suggestion rather than just reading off cards.
Group similar items and discuss themes or patterns that emerge, encouraging everyone to contribute to the conversation.
Guide a discussion to select which new habits or experiments to prioritize and which old instincts to consciously retire in the coming cycle.
End by clearly agreeing on action items with owners and timelines, then close with a light check-out question in the zoo spirit (e.g., What animal best represents your week?).
Pro Tips
Add animal-themed icebreakers or visuals to enhance engagement and loosen up the team.
Encourage playful language and analogies to make feedback less personal and more constructive.
Use anonymous input for sensitive topics if team psychological safety is low.
Periodically check which 'zoo rules' are still serving, to avoid accumulating outdated routines.
FAQ
How do I help the team move ideas from discussion to action?
Summarize takeaways and assign clear owners and next steps at the end of the session. Review progress at the start of your next retrospective.
What if team members repeat the same routines in 'Keep the Herd Moving' every session?
Dig deeper into why these are important and whether they need to be refreshed or replaced to keep the team evolving.
How do I manage negative feedback in 'Retire Old Instincts'?
Frame discussion in terms of team growth and ecosystem health. Remind everyone the goal is improvement, not blame.
At a glance
- Duration
40–55 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