What is the Personal Growth retrospective?
This is an exceptionally valuable retrospective if you’re looking for an easy way to support the empowerment and well-being of your team members. Given that your team is made up of individuals, this retrospective gives them the opportunity and space to look at how they can each set personal goals and how others in the team can support their efforts. This can help to build bonds but also create the impetus for personal change at work.
The Personal Growth template was inspired by two areas of research.
Firstly, Rotter’s work relating to the Locus of Control, one of the four dimensions of self-evaluation. His research and that of others points to the fact that the more internal control an individual perceives they have, the more confident, empowered and productive they will be.
Secondly, the alignment of gratitude to well-being. This is a hot topic at the moment and for good reason – grateful people are happier and far less stressed.
The process of helping your team review your last iteration with this template will help the next sprint and your team!
Personal Growth retrospective format
Improve
Participants are invited to capture the actions they can deliver to improve the next sprint. What small habits could help them focus? What could they do to support other team members? How do they perceive they could directly contribute to the next sprint?
Support
Here participants list the help the team could offer and why that is important. The assistance could be directly aligned with delivering value through the sprint or helping to foster well-being.
Grateful
Participants have the chance to identify sources of work-related gratitude, the longer the list the better! The reasons could be as small as liking the coffee.
Suggested Icebreaker questions for Personal Growth retrospective
- What one thing would you tell your 15-year-old self if you could go back in time?
- Who has supported your personal growth?
- For what or whom are you most grateful?
Retro Rehearsal
Invite your team to rehearse the retro referencing a short-term plan.
For example, how can you improve, support or show gratitude for plans for the weekend?
Ideas and tips for your Personal Growth retrospectives
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A great way to open up minds to this style of retrospective is to ask everyone to share one statement that they would tell their 15-year-old self if they could go back in time.
What is a piece of wisdom, knowledge, change or advice that they would give to their younger selves? This lends itself well to the style of retrospective that can sometimes be confronting or challenging.
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Make brainstorming anonymous to allow people to feel safe when contributing their thoughts. People will feel more engaged when they feel like they can air what they need to.
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Be explicit and open about asking people to respect the ideas and thought put forward by others and reward supportive behaviour and comments.
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Look for commonalities between the areas of improvement where there might be an opportunity for sharing, paring and caring for each other.
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At a high level, it might be good to see what areas you can help support the whole team within terms of reaching their goals.
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Ending on gratitude is a powerful way to close the meeting and to leave people feeling empowered and motivated.
How to run a Personal Growth retrospective in TeamRetro
Start Your Session in a Click
Log into TeamRetro and choose your template. Customise questions and the workflow to create your perfect retro for your team.
Create Your Team Easily – No Separate Accounts Needed
Brainstorm Individually – Free From Bias
Smart Grouping for Faster Insights
Fair, Flexible, and Fast Voting
Engage, React, and Capture Key Insights
Walk your team through ideas one by one with Presentation Mode. Stay in sync, spark real-time discussions, and capture feedback with comments, live reactions, and polls—all in one place.
Turn Ideas Into Action
Propose next steps with team buy-in, get AI-powered action suggestions, and keep everything in one place. Committed actions sync to your personal dashboard and integrate with your workflow tools—keeping you on track.
Save, Share, and Stay on Track
Get quick AI-powered summaries, add facilitator notes, and store retrospectives in your library for easy access. Schedule your next session and track published actions to keep your team accountable at the next retro.
Turn Team Data into Actionable Insights
Uncover trends, common themes, and key engagement metrics at a glance. Track sentiment shifts, analyze conversations, and monitor completed actions to drive continuous improvement.