# Lord of the Hirings

Team members sort current team practices into three employment-themed columns: Hired, Fired, and Promoted. They group shared themes, drop wasteful habits, and elevate a small success into a standard routine.

**Time:** 35 minutes. UWT suggested 35-minute duration; source template had no fixed time limit.
**People:** 4 to 16. Individual silent generation followed by whole-group sorting, discussion, and debrief

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Sort team habits, tools, and workflows into practices to keep, drop, or expand.
**Use it when:** Use at the end of a sprint, project phase, or quarter when a team needs to streamline operational routines.
**Skip it when:** Skip when team tensions involve interpersonal friction rather than work processes, as the hiring and firing metaphor can be misread as evaluating people.

## Materials and tools

- 1 whiteboard or clear wall space divided into three columns: Hired, Fired, Promoted
- Sticky notes (at least 10 notes per participant)
- Markers or pens (1 per participant)
- Optional digital whiteboard or retrospective board tool for remote groups

## Before participants arrive

1. Draw three wide columns labeled Hired, Fired, and Promoted on the board.
2. Under Hired, write: Keep doing. What work or interactions give us energy and keep us productive?
3. Under Fired, write: Stop doing. What drains energy or wastes effort? Focus strictly on practices, not individuals.
4. Under Promoted, write: Do more. What small success should we upgrade into a standard habit?

## Say this to open

Welcome to our process retro. We are evaluating our team habits and systems, not each other. Under Hired, write practices that earn their keep. Under Fired, write habits or meetings we should drop. Under Promoted, write promising experiments we want to scale up. You have five minutes to write silently.

## How to run it

### 1. Introduce columns and set rules (3 minutes)

Explain the three columns using the opening script. Emphasize that all notes must address practices, tools, or workflows, not names or roles. Confirm everyone understands the categories before starting.

### 2. Silent card generation (5 minutes)

Participants write ideas independently on sticky notes with one idea per note. Everyone works silently. People may contribute as many or as few notes as they wish, or choose to observe.

### 3. Post and cluster (7 minutes)

Invite participants to post their notes in the corresponding column. As notes appear, invite volunteers to move duplicate or closely related topics together into clusters.

### 4. Review Fired items (8 minutes)

Direct attention to the Fired column first. Read the largest cluster aloud. Ask the room if this practice can be discontinued immediately or if it requires a replacement step. Decide on an action for at least one item before moving on.

### 5. Review Promoted and Hired items (7 minutes)

Review the Promoted column. Select one promising pilot to establish as a standard practice and assign an owner. Briefly acknowledge items in the Hired column as verified practices to keep unchanged.

### 6. Debrief and close (5 minutes)

Ask the debrief questions to the room. Hear 2 or 3 brief reflections on immediate impact, then record commitments.


## Debrief questions

- Which discontinued practice will free up the most time immediately?
- What specific step will turn our promoted experiment into a consistent habit?

**Finished output:** A list of stopped practices, kept routines, and at least one newly promoted practice assigned to an owner.

## Remote

Set up an online board with three columns titled Hired, Fired, and Promoted, with private writing mode turned on. Give five minutes for silent writing. Reveal cards simultaneously, group similar items collaboratively, and run the discussion using video or audio with participants using hand-raise icons to speak.

## Hybrid

In-person participants write physical sticky notes while a designated facilitator transcribes them onto the shared digital board, or all participants use personal laptops to add cards to the digital board directly. Discussion alternates evenly between room and online mics.

## Access and participation choices

- Participants may submit digital cards anonymously or post without reading their own cards aloud.
- Anyone may choose to pass on writing notes or speaking during the discussion without giving a reason.

## If the session gets stuck

**Someone posts a note criticizing a specific coworker.**

Remove the note immediately. Remind the group that the session reviews team workflows, tools, and processes, never individuals.

**The group gets stuck debating a complex practice in the Fired column.**

Cap discussion at three minutes per cluster. If consensus is unclear, assign one volunteer to draft an alternative workflow before the next retrospective.


## Terms used here

- Private mode: A digital retrospective board setting that hides cards from other participants until the writing phase ends.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in EasyRetro template library as 'Lord of The Hirings Retrospective', attributed to user KR.

Retained the three-column prompt structure (Hired, Fired, Promoted) and column sequence from the EasyRetro user template by KR. Standardized step timings to a 35-minute working session including a dedicated debrief step, added explicit ground rules against targeting individuals, and removed optional background music requirements.

[EasyRetro](https://easyretro.io/templates/lord-of-the-hirings/)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/lord-of-the-hirings/