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The format/structure for this retrospective is based upon the one developed by Chris Stone – The Virtual Agile Coach.

The retrospectives formats created and shared by Chris are an excellent way of engaging teams and taking a new perspective on the challenges that teams face and the successes that they achieve. They provide the opportunity for team to identify ways of continuously improving through the use of analogies linked to music, film, TV and more.

With Euro 2020 well underway, I have used the same format/structure to create a retrospective based upon Football Songs/Anthems. The re-use of this retrospective format has been undertaken with Chris’ permission.

There are numerous official and unofficial songs that have been released over the years that are synonymous with World Cups, European Championships and teams making it to the FA Cup Final. Back in the day, there was even the odd footballer that tried to top the music charts, including Kevin Keegan, Ian Wright and Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle (and there are many more).

These songs often create a feeling of euphoria and unity, and are celebrations of individuals collaborating to support a common cause. The same can be said of the retrospective process in that the team are looking at how they can continue to be successful and/or areas where they can improve together.

For this retrospective, I identified six football songs/anthems where a title or artist name could be used as a topic for gathering data about the successes of the team, or, the identification for areas where the team think that there is an opportunity for improvement. They include:-

  • You’ll Never Walk Alone – Gerry and the Pacemakers – How can we better support each other? What external support do we need?
  • We’re on the Ball – Ant and Dec – What are we on top of? What is progressing well?
  • For on the Tyne – Lindisfarne feat. Paul Gascoigne – What can’t we see? What are we missing?
  • Come on England – 4-4-2 – Do we have the right team formation? Are we missing any skills/knowledge?
  • From London to Berlin – Infernal – Are we heading in the right direction? What do we need to say/get back on course?
  • Vindaloo – Fat Les – What is too hot to handle? What is too risky to touch?

The team are asked to write their thoughts on post-it notes in order to answer these questions, before each category is reviewed, grouping similar themed responses. The team then identify actions that they wanted to take in.

Below are the brief instructions for running this retrospective.

Instructions for running the ‘Football Songs/Anthems’ retrospective

Run time: 1 hour (dependent on discussions)

Equipment required: White board (or similar), post-it notes, pens

  1. Depending on your artistic ability, draw images representing each of the football songs/anthems (alternative print pictures and put these on a wall/whiteboard)
  2. Explain to you team the meaning of each segment and questions to be answered
  3. Distribute post-it notes and pens and ask the team to write down their thoughts, comments and/or questions (ideally at least one post-it note per person per segment)
  4. Review and discuss each segment in turn, grouping common responses
  5. Create actions and assign owners

Additional Pre-Retrospective Activity

I set the team the task of trying to guess the theme of the retrospective based upon a number of clues that were provided on a daily basis. The clues are listed below and could be provided in any order, although some may point to the theme more that others.

  • Clue 1 – Ant and Dec
  • Answer 1 – They sung ‘We’re on the Ball’ the official England song of the 2002 World Cup
  • Clue 2 – Sausage Roll (I used a .gif)
  • Answer – In 1990 Paul Gascoigne and Lindisfarne revisited Fog on the Tyne, to which the first line is:- ‘Sittin’ in a sleazy snack-bar suckin’ sickly sausage rolls’
  • Clue 3 – Cryptic crossword clue – Wannabe Tron journey’s across Europe to blend forlorn motion (4,6,2,6)
  • Answer 3 – A remix of Infernal’s From Paris to Berlin was made for the 2006 World Cup and titled ‘From London to Berlin’, which is an anagram of ‘blend forlorn motion’. The music video has a Tron-like feel
  • Clue 4 – A poem/riddle
    Origins may be hazy
    And some say it’s our national dish
    But this cousin is not as crazy
    Or as hot as some may wish

    The version you want is another
    That started on Europes shores
    With spices a plenty you may suffer
    Sweat dripping from every pore

    You may think that you have the answer
    But one more clue I must give
    A red herring (or not) to decipher
    Back through this poem you’ll have to sieve

    Good luck on your quest to discover
    The piece of the puzzle that’s missing
    As left at the end to uncover
    Is the sound of everyone singing
  • Answer 4 – The poem/riddle was describing a Vindaloo, which was the title of an unofficial World Cup song in 1998, sung by Fat Les. There was also an anagram of Fat Les in the penultimate line of the poem/riddle – ‘As left’
  • Clue 5 – The odd one out (Picture shared of James Cordon, Bradley Walsh, Rik Mayall and Eric Edle
  • Answer 5 – The odd one out was Bradley Walsh. In 2010 James Cordon was part of the official Work Cup song, Shout (re-released in 2012 for the Euro’s). Rik Mayall sung Noble England in 2010, reaching number 7 in the charts in 2014 following his death. Also in 2014, ‘Always look on the bright side of life’ by Eric Idle was updated and released as an unofficial World Cup song. Bradley Walsh has released two albums, but not a football related song (as far as I am aware), although he did appear in Mike Bassett: England Manager and played football in his youth. 
  • Clue 6 – Emoji’s – ???
  • Answer 6 – No explanation needed (hopefully!).

Some of the clues may be obscure/tenuous. Should your team be struggling, you could always provide them the year of relevance for the clue.

It would be great to receive feedback from you and your team on the format of this retrospective and it’s ability to generate valuable actions.