21st-century business principles are more focused than ever on the future. This keeps the eyes of businesses looking onward and upward, but for all the time spent thinking of forward movement, sometimes we overlook the lessons that can be learned from the past. 

Today, we're diving into how reflections can be a game-changer for boosting your team's performance. Team reflections focus on how everyone’s feeling and are more laid-back. They give space to talk about anything from the project overall to how the team talks to each other, making it a good time to address all sorts of things to help the team gel and work better together.

On the other hand, agile retrospectives, which you may have heard of, are all about looking at how the team works and making it better, tied closely to what’s happening in the current sprint. It’s a structured way to figure out how to improve.

How often should team reflections happen?

Well, it can depend on your company's scope, size and speed. More agile companies usually carry them out weekly or bi-weekly. More rigid companies aim for every 2 to 6 months. 

Think of team reflections as a chance for staff to share their honest and genuine thoughts or concerns on a project or task. Getting your staff to speak openly and comfortably is often easier said than done. That’s why we’re here today, to help you set up a perfect team reflection, one that ensures your teams grow to their full potential.

10 example questions a manager can ask their staff for effective team reflections:

1. What were the toughest parts of this project, and how did we handle them?
2. Did we communicate effectively throughout the project, or were there any hiccups?
3. Did we achieve our goals? If not, what held us back?
4. What teamwork moments stood out as successful, and where could we improve?
5. How did we deal with challenges or changes? What worked, and what didn't?
6. Did everyone feel heard and valued during the project? How can we improve inclusivity?
7. Are there any decisions we made that we should reconsider?
8. What did we learn, and how can we apply it next time?
9. Did this reflection session give us useful insights? How can we make future sessions better?
10. How can we ensure that we put our learnings into practice going forward?

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So, now you know what questions to cover in the meetings, let’s get into how to run one.

A step-by-step guide on facilitating team reflection meetings

Before the team reflections meeting

Make sure that you’re preparing for the team reflections correctly. Below, we go through some of the key aspects of preparation for the meeting:

1. Clearly define goals

The first step in setting up a perfect team reflection is defining the objectives and goals of these sessions. Using a notebook or a digital document, make a list of desirable outcomes. Maybe it’s hitting that quarterly target, or improving staff happiness in yearly surveys. Be specific.

Once you’ve nailed down your goals don’t keep them under lock and key. Share them with your team in the early development stage, and don’t feel like you’re laying down laws. Understand that you’re encouraging your workforce to work towards measurable achievements, and providing goalposts your teams can aim for. It’s a great way to start!

Top tip: keep it simple, keep it SMART!

Make sure your goals are SMART; that is, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. This ensures you stay focused on the most crucial business areas. Another tip when drafting your goals is to use the simplest tools like a notepad .txt file. This stops you from becoming lost in formatting, embellishing or decoration.

2. Schedule frequency

With your actionable goals laid out and understood by your teams, now you need to think of how often these team reflection sessions will occur. The key here is to tailor the frequency to your work culture. 

If your company is agile (meaning it frequently adapts regularly to market changes and technological developments) then this flexibility pairs well with more frequent reflection sessions. Aiming towards bi-weekly or monthly makes sure reflections consist of significant changes, so naturally, there are more lessons to be reflected on.

Agile styles were developed as a response to more rigid styles of business operations (also called waterfall). Waterfall is a more linear form of project management, whereby teams complete each project phase before moving to the next. Here, less frequent reflection sessions are needed, ranging from bi-annual to once per year.

Ultimately, the key is to strike a balance between consistency and flexibility. Set regular dates for reflection sessions, but remain open to changing them based on your teams’ feedback or the evolving project needs. It requires balance, but the results pay dividends.

3. Choose the right meeting format

Now’s the time to really think about the perfect meeting format. Your traditional meeting format still has the advantages of real-time interaction and non-verbal cues, but is it optimized for your remote workers or hybrid teams? If not, a virtual meeting might be the way to go.

Rising remote work and flexible work schedules mean teams can actually be optimized with asynchronous work systems. Not all reflection sessions need to happen in real-time. Asynchronous formats, such as shared documents or discussion boards, allow members to contribute at their own pace.

Some team members may feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts in private. Here, deeper discussions can be held and your feedback can be more personalized, and again you have the option here to go for an in-person or virtual format.

Top tip: Utilize cloud storage

Make the most of your company’s digital asset management (DAM) to save and store the output of team reflections. This creates an invaluable vault of well-organized documents, images and resources in one sleek cloud-based system.

During the team reflections meeting

Here are some ideas to keep in mind whilst the team reflections meeting is taking place:

4. Create a safe environment

The next stage leans on softer techniques for managers to utilize, and it means making sure every member feels like they’re somewhere they can speak openly and free of judgment. 

Firstly, lead by example. Your teams will take cues from your behaviour, so show some openness and express any concerns yourself. Share your experiences and be receptive to feedback and differing viewpoints. This helps set the tone for open dialogue.

A more technical term for this is workplace psychological safety, which is defined as the “absence of interpersonal fear.” Staff who are afraid to share their ideas simply won’t share those ideas, and instead of valuable reflections, “groupthink” settles in. Make the most of one-on-one or team check-ins to combat groupthink and amplify the productivity of each team member.

By creating a safe environment for team reflections people feel like they have the green light to share how they think a project went. This leads to collecting the information you need to create teams that work with, and for, each other, and leads to positive team growth. 

5. Encourage participation

Leading on from creating a safe and open arena for free expression, now you should do your utmost to get that crucial participation from others. As a manager, you’re likely to receive diverse perspectives, so celebrate them.

Be willing to take a backseat and ask team leaders to present. Getting each member involved keeps everyone aware of what’s happening at all times. Each time a new agenda item is covered, have some questions prepared to try and gauge their opinions and thoughts. In a virtual setting, encourage screen sharing with members and have a digital collection of questions and activities to bring into team reflections.

Top tip: Don’t fear small silences

When encouraging participation from members, meetings can sometimes fall a little silent. It might be new for employees from different backgrounds to have more control and openness in sharing their thoughts. This is a simple tip, but it is often overlooked by managers too eager to get to the output of meetings. Don’t rush to fill a silent void with hurried conclusions.

After the team reflections meeting

Just because the meeting is over doesn’t mean your efforts to improve are! Here are areas you must consider after the team reflections meeting is over:

6. Focus on solutions

As the thoughts and ideas from team reflections come in, this step is aimed at applying those ideas to practical solutions.

Let’s create a scenario of a point raised in a reflection session. One team member said they feel they’re struggling with balancing workload and personal life. This is the time to make sure you truly hear the thoughts that emerge in a reflection session.

You want to quickly find out if any other member has the same feeling. If so, it becomes paramount to show your staff that you’re focused on a solution. In this scenario, consider bringing in a more flexible work schedule policy. A reflex response of increasing team size might be your go-to solution, but it’s crucial to remember that often, adding more members to teams is not proven to increase project output.

By showing staff that you’re focused on effective solutions that consider well-being as well as work output, you’re helping to create reflection sessions that are more open and honest. This approach leads to more productive teams, the greatest result a genuine team reflection session can have.

7. Document lessons learned

Set aside some time to document all this valuable information in debriefs. After being so focused on applying solutions to the points raised in your team reflections, it’s a great time to document and store what has been learned.

Create a shared document where everyone is encouraged to get their thoughts down on how your reflection sessions have helped. A central hub keeps it accessible to everyone, including your remote workers whenever they’d like a refresher. 

You could lead by creating a storytime-style document, complete with the small victories and hardships. Stories are proven to stick with readers more, and include visuals to illustrate how each lesson was taken in. A more down-to-earth approach keeps the learning alive and kicking for everyone!

8. Evaluate and incorporate

We have set up a carefully planned team reflection, collected key information and charted our course for improvement. Now’s the time to make sure, the true value lies not just in the reflection itself, but what comes next. We need to incorporate everything into the fabric of the work culture and business operations.

Utilize the data. Do you find any patterns emerging? If so, use actionable steps for future tasks. Your schedule of team reflections is up and running, so bring these to the reflections of next week, month or next quarter. This ongoing process of team growth and development celebrates lessons learned on the journey, not at the destination. 

Get your clearest reflections in a new location. Try out one of our team retreats!

Here at Surf Office, our business is getting teams working at their prime, and we know that team-building retreats are a fabulous way to cement positive teamwork. So why not consider a team retreat with us? Imagine the usual confines of your office settings melting away on a sandy beach or taking the time to appreciate nature on a countryside retreat.

Like this idea but not sure how to put it all together? No problem, this is where Surf Office comes in.

We've had the pleasure of organizing over 700+ retreat experiences, including remote teams, for many different companies. Here’s how what we offer:

• Stress-free transfers? We got you! ✅
• Quality-assured accommodations? Check! ✅
• Engaging team-building activities? Our speciality ✅
• Restaurant reservations? That's on us! ✅
• Expert retreat planning assistance? Of course, we have this covered! ✅
• Onsite support, tailored to your needs? Absolutely ✅

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Not only this but we also have access to 150+ locations around Europe, APAC, the US and now Latin America, meaning the sky is your limit when it comes to choosing the right location for you and your team.

Your team reflection meetings will work at their best when everyone feels relaxed and engaged, so make the most of an offsite retreat to have your team reflections as clear as crystal.