Project Management Tips: What is the 4 L's Retrospective?

What is the 4 L's Retrospective?

The 4L's method is great for adding some clear, but dynamic structure to your next retrospective. The technique uses open-ended questions:What did you love? What did you loathe?What did you long for?What did you learn?

The technique can be broke down further into simplified words that work as a memory aid:

LOVED, LOATHED, LONGED FOR, LEARNED
I love this technique because it doesn't require people to try to remember and articulate a bunch of facts. Instead, it highlights what the team felt passionate about and focuses on what we can learn from this. Generally, the team also enjoys this method because they feel confident in their opinion and it starts a creative conversation that starts off with positives.

Why I Love/Loathe/Longfor/Learn this method?

LOVED: Simple, constructive, positive, facilitated team openness and courage

LOATHED: Not using this technique. I think this technique is so versatile that it can be used in almost any retrospective.

LONG FOR: I think most teams will desire the creative flow that this structure brings to meetings and gives everyone a chance to share an opinion, thus supporting the value of openness. There is not a requirement to overthink what you share and over time the team gets more into the flow of the technique.

LEARN: Teams can learn a lot from this method because they are invited to speak up in a way that facilitates courage to share their opinion.

Examples and Templates

There are some examples and templates available and I'm including some more resources below under the further reading subheading. Here is an image from Atlassian's website showing how you can set up this method with basic Kanban materials. Of course, something similar could be done on a whiteboard in Miro or similar collaborative software for remote teams.

Further Reading:

https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/4-ls-retrospective-technique#instructions

https://blog.trello.com/team-meeting-ideas