This is a workshop for discovering what problems are slowing teams down and to find root causes. It also helps the team to define the first actions to start solving the problem(s).

1. TheWhyTree and the
Low HangingActions
A Retro format,
Designed by Franky Redant, Agile coach at Agile in the Core together with
ShandaCordingley and Dries Bellen, both Scrummasters at Eurocontrol.

2. Goal
 This retro format helps teams to explore the root causes of a
problem or issue, as a team and helps them to formulate actions
to solve the root cause of causes.
 The format is inspired on techniques like : the 5 why’s, silent
mindmapping

3. 1.Set the
Stage
 Welcome
 Kerth’s Prime Directive
"Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly
believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what
they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources
available, and the situation at hand.“
(Norm Kerth, Project Retrospectives: A Handbook forTeam Review)
 State the problem
for example :
“we consistently are unable to finish all committed stories in our sprint”
“we don’t have an integrated application so we can do our demo properly
to our customer”
10’

4.  Have the team think of causes of the problem.
 Eg.Why are we not able to finish all stories we committed to?
 Ask the team to write the reasons on post-its (silently) and put them on the board/wall as
shown in the image. Connect the problem statement with the causes but drawing a line on
the whiteboard or by adding string.
 Once the first line of reasons are there, let the team (silently add more causes and let them
dive into specific ones, by asking why several times.There is no need to explicitly ask 5 times
why. Just let them drill down the problem. Ask regularly “why?”
Gather data Problem
statement
10’

5. Gather data &
generate
insight.
Problem
statement
 In the second round (drilling deeper into the causes) you can let them discuss or they can
continue silently. Discussing will generate insight more quickly.
 Causes that are related or similar can be rearranged the board or the team can use lines to
indicate the relation between causes.
 When you asked themWhen the team sees no more causes they can discuss and try to figure
out whether they have found the most important causes for the problem.
15’

6. Define actions
 Finally let the team define actions together. Ask them as they write each action on a post-it to
indicate which cause it would help to fix.
 It might be useful to remind the team about the circles of influence (control – influence – out-
of-control) to help them focus on action they can actually control or at least influence)
 Also have them indicate who will work on which action (either simultaneously or after all action
are on the board.They can add themselves on more than one task, you can limit the number if
you want.
 If there is more than one person on a task, they taskteam needs to indicate an owner who will
report on the progress during the daily standup.
Problem
statement15’

7. 5.Close the
retro
 To close the retro you can use a number of formats
 Happiness vote?
 Do you feel confident we have found the root causes to our
problem?
 Do you feel confident the actions will solve the problem?
 What did you feel about this retro?
 Or any other closing you fancy.
 Good luck!And Enjoy!
10’

8. Setup and
Material
 A big whiteboard or a wall prepared with sticky whiteboard sheets
(static plastic sheets that stick to walls) or flipchart paper.
 Post-its, at least 2 colors
 Whiteboard (erasable) markers
 If using flipchart paper, yarn or removable line tape to indicate
relationship between post-its
 The timings indicated in the circles on the previous slides are
indicative.

9. Some
pictures(*)
(*) with permission from the Eurocontrol n-CONECT team

10. Agile in the
Core
 The team of experience Agile and Agility coaches at Agile in the
Core (*) has helped to transform many teams and organisations to
become agile in mind and method.
 If you have a team that needs help in agile methods, mindset or
tools,
 If you want to transform your organisation to an agile enterprise :
 Find us at http://agileinthecore.com
 Or contact me at mailto:franky.redant@cegeka.be
(*)Agile in the Core is a Cegeka Group brand.