Team Practices Group/Retrospectives/2017-04-27

ACTIONS!

New:

(None)

Prior:
 * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Team_Practices_Group/Retrospectives/2017-03-20
 * JA to take on a retro on TPG weekly meeting structure DONE
 * JA to catch up on posting Jan retro notes DONE
 * KS set up a wildcard page for TPG DONE
 * KS to create a task for myself to work with eng-admin to find a 1-hr slot DONE

Next faciliwolf: Joel

What has happened since last retro on 2017-03-20
 * ”Org Tune Up”
 * TPG-related portions
 * Discovery portions
 * Rest-of-org-related portions
 * Grace facilitated 2 retros on the Flow survey
 * Grace facilitated Services team retro
 * Grace started hanging out with Community Tech
 * Movement strategy workshops
 * Grace delivered SAFe presentation encore to Arthur and Joel
 * Grace met with JR on RelEng re: testing at WMF and explaining what TPG does
 * Natalia & Grace met with the rest of the Intercultural Initiative group
 * Kevin and Max continuing to plan the Discovery offsite
 * Max facilitated Web Offsite
 * Max and Natalia facilitated Reading Offsite (back-to-back with Web Offsite)
 * Max/Natalia updated the “Planning Offsites” guide based on lessons from Reading offsites
 * Explorimented with new weekly TPG meeting agendas
 * E.g. walking through the engagements board
 * Effective Assertive Communication training
 * Prep for and presentation of Q3/Q4 TPG quarterly checkin
 * Almost almost done with Improved Status Quo documentation
 * Phlogiston still not quite dead: James using actively; Collab using passively; Phacility incorporating requests into their backlog; Volker started using it for OOjs-UI.
 * FY1617 Annual Report kicked off
 * Wikitribune announcement and discussion on mailing lists
 * Spring is here!

Five-finger retro

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Team_Practices_Group/Five_finger_retrospective

Pinky ([could be] overlooked)

 * MB: TPG-Engagements - it feels like we had a plan to figure out what this was for, and kind of abandoned that plan. I’m not sure where we are at or what we are aiming for.
 * What do we want to accomplish? I feel like we are honing process around it before actually defining a goal.
 * KS: KL has been helping all of us cope...I hope she has coping techniques for herself
 * GG: Kevin for his patience and follow through with tackling the calendar
 * KL: Unknown
 * JA: +1.  Unknown unknowns.
 * JA: Wes’s role in supporting TPG
 * AR: Pain can sometimes be a good thing, even though it doesn’t feel good in the moment. I don't think agile or scrum solves problems, but it can help highlight where problems exist. I have started to see the “Org Tune Up” the same way, an opportunity to see yet-unseen problems. While the “Org Tune Up” has felt unsatisfactory, it has been handled better than reorgs in the past. It will take a while before we arrive at a truly satisfactory way of handing these things. In the spirit of learning, we HAVE learned something. This is an interesting opportunity.

Ring (relationship)

 * KS: Learned that TPG's relationship w/ Toby and Anna is not what we thought it was
 * GG: Arthur for his relationship to the team as its founder
 * MB: KL is a great manager
 * KL: team
 * AR: It’s been interesting to think about the “Tune Up” for me, as it relates to TPG, as my new role would be outside of TPG. Interesting to think of my relationship to the team, finding deep love and connection to all of you. Strong impulse to protect the team, and help the team get something positive out of the experience.

Middle (do not like)

 * MB: Proposed tpg reorg was a shock, distraction
 * It’s threatening to hear one upper management say “your team is way bigger than teams at other companies like Yahoo” during a reorg
 * I feel concerned that senior leadership doesn’t understand the impact they have on subordinates, and how much their responsibility is to put us in a position to succeed.
 * I wonder if emails sent on Wikitribune are actual concerns or in reality behavior manifesting from org anxiety elsewhere, such as reorg.
 * Meta note: probably legit separate concerns, but the point stands


 * KS: The tune-up
 * NH: Wikitribune confusion
 * AR: For me it’s the Tune Up, at least the part after the consultative phase. It’s been challenging not having shared understanding of the problems or a shared understanding of how the proposed solutions will solve them - I was initially under the impression the entire process would be much more collaborative. I’m also feeling a bit unmoored in that it’s really unclear where I should be focussing my time with the immediate future so uncertain.

Index (key takeaway)

 * KL: change and uncertainty can be mentally, physically exhausting
 * KS: The tune-up has probably already cost WMF $100k in time
 * NH: Better to watch what people do than to take what they say for granted (Tune Up proposal that was “not” final)
 * MB: Change is happening whether you see it or not, all the time
 * AR: Like Pluto¹, TPG will always be TPG to me, regardless of the outcome of the Tune Up. A resource, a group, a concept I will always draw upon for the remainder of my time at WMF. Honored and pleased with how TPG has navigated the uncertainty of the Tune Up over the last month or so.

Thumb (approve)
What could have gone better:
 * KS: TPG coming together and supporting each other in a stressful time
 * GG: we are a functional, supportive team
 * JA: Suzie Nussel as a calm, patient, and effective presenter/facilitator and source of gentle feedback +1 +2
 * MB: TPG are professionals and I’m proud to be a part
 * NH: Max is a great first time offsite partner in crime
 * NH: TPG offsite!
 * KL: change
 * AR: The document we have been collectively pulling together. I always get a little unnerved and weary of co-op docs and I have been happy to see how well it has come together.
 * Tune Up as emotional vampire
 * Job loss is among most stressful life events, so involuntary job change must also be pretty stressful
 * Feelings of grief, feeling disrespected
 * Feels like getting dumped in a relationship