A facilitator’s overview of 4 Plays that center on debriefing
Introducing 4 debriefing Plays from the Atlassian Team Playbook
What are Plays? Simply put, Plays are workshops designed by our team to help your team improve performance and address common challenges. The four Plays examined in this article make up the debriefing group. Run these Plays when your team needs to build shared understanding, define next steps, or learn from mistakes.
The 4 debriefing Plays
- Team Health Monitor: uncovers your team’s most immediate opportunities to grow
- Premortem: identifies triggers for challenges/wins early enough to take action
- Retrospective: analyzes what did and did not work to optimize the next team collaboration
- 4Ls Retrospective: draws emotional responses from your team to identify the most urgent areas to learn from on a recently completed project
Dive into the debriefing Plays with Lujan Cima, a coach on the Atlassian Craft Practices and Learning team:
Success starts with preparation
Whether you are preparing to run your third Play or your 30th, the best way to build confidence is to spend an adequate amount of time preparing for the workshop. That includes reviewing your agenda, and downloading tools or creating visuals that will be needed during the session. Ultimately, getting organized prior to the Play frees you up to be present and focused on the big day.
Because we know that preparing for a Play can be overwhelming, especially for first-time facilitators, we put together a visual Preparation Guide as well as a checklist to help you stay on track during the preparation process. These are guidelines, not strict rules. You should customize both resources to fit your specific needs.
The end is just the beginning
During a Play, you will collect a lot of information. That information will be distilled into clear documentation after the workshop. Your documentation is both a record of what happened during the Play and a roadmap for the next steps. Use your documentation to make informed decisions and hold your team accountable as you move forward.
The Atlassian Team Playbook provides Play templates on platforms like Trello, Confluence, and Mural to guide your documentation process. You can start with our templates and customize them for your team’s needs. As an example, the Confluence template for the Retrospective Play can be found in the ‘Optional Templates’ section on the Retrospective homepage. Or check out our article on running Retrospectives for more information.
Pro tips for great documentation:
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List the steps of the Play ahead of time, using the Play instructions found on the Atlassian Team Playbook website
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Make observations of team interactions during exercises to capture thoughts and ideas
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Summarize shared ideas after exercises
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Confirm solutions agreed upon when wrapping up
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List action items to be completed after the Play, who they are assigned to, and the deadlines
For an example of a facilitator walking through a Play from their perspective, let’s take a look at a completed Health Monitor as told by Charlotte Whitmore from Atlassian’s Craft Practices and Learning team.
If you’re looking for a low-stakes way to get started running Plays, try running one of the debriefing Plays at home. Choose whichever Play fits your situation, apply the advice given in this article, and have fun!
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Start with friends and family: Debrief a dinner you cooked, an activity you planned, or anything else.
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Document yourself running the Play using Confluence, Mural, Zoom, or even just a pencil and paper.
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Share your story and experience in a community post or comment below.
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Celebrate—you just ran a Play!
Find more training resources for Atlassian Team Playbook on Atlassian Community:
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Christine P. Dela Rosa
About this author
Principal Strategist, Brand Advocacy
Atlassian
San Francsico
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