As part of my team's workflow, every two weeks we take some time to have a retrospective session (we are currently using Scrum). Although the format can vary, we normally keep things pretty simple and talk through what went well and what could have been improved during the sprint, and then we come up with a few action items to work on the next one. I have helped facilitate many of these retros and one thing that I started to notice fairly regularly was how easy it was to quickly jump into where teams wanted to improve and only briefly touch upon (or completely skip) what had been working well. With the focus that agile frameworks place on continuous improvement, it is understandable for teams to want to find ways to fix things they feel aren't working, but I have found that focusing on what has been working can be just as important in ensuring the team continues to succeed.

If you work in any sort of management position or in a team environment, it is very likely you have heard the term "self-organizing" team. This is something that has become a key ingredient in high performing and motivated teams and when I first learned about it it made total sense. However, it is such a high-level concept that I had no idea how to actually go about coaching and encouraging teams to effectively self-organize. After a great deal of research, experimentation, and failure, here is a list of tips that I wish I would have had when I was first getting started.