Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.

Help me prepare and run the exercise below. First ask for my participant count, time, setting, access needs and intended result. Check these against the stated limits. Use the supplied rules and materials. Explain any proposed changes before using them, and label them as adaptations. Do not invent source claims or require personal disclosure. Give me one step at a time when I say start. I manage the people, physical activity and clock; do not claim to observe the room. Ask me what happened before choosing a next step.

Reference revision: 7d1de696de3e16b1610fdca8f7a1f7f1b8a4674c5f605524de8ea931a37bfc1d

# Saint Patrick's Day Retrospective

Teams reflect on a recent project cycle using three folkloric categories: foundations that supported them, obstacles to banish, and concrete improvement actions to grow.

**Time:** 50 minutes. UWT suggested duration of 50 minutes to allow adequate discussion and clear action assignment for groups up to 16.
**People:** 4 to 16. Individual silent reflection followed by whole-group clustering, dot voting, and pair action assignment

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Evaluate what supported recent work, identify wasteful practices to eliminate, and assign owners to tangible improvement actions.
**Use it when:** Sprint reviews, project milestones, or periodic retrospectives when the team wants an engaging seasonal framing for process review.
**Skip it when:** Teams navigating acute interpersonal conflict or situations where religious or folkloric metaphors feel awkward, inappropriate, or distracting.

## Materials and tools

- Whiteboard or wall space divided into three columns
- Sticky notes (3 pads of different colors or plain)
- Pens or markers (1 per person)
- Dot stickers for voting (3 per person)
- Digital whiteboard tool if running remotely

## Before participants arrive

1. Draw three wide columns on the board labeled: 1. The Shamrock (Tech, Process, People), 2. Banishing Snakes (Drop/Avoid), 3. Root and Grow (Action Steps).
2. Write the column prompt questions clearly at the top of each section.
3. Distribute sticky notes and pens to each seat.

## Say this to open

Welcome to our retrospective. Today we are using three traditional legends associated with Saint Patrick to evaluate our last cycle. Column one, The Shamrock, covers our foundations: What technologies aided us, what processes helped our efficiency, and who deserves a shout-out? Column two, Banishing Snakes, covers obstacles: What processes must we change, and what should we avoid to improve performance? Column three, Root and Grow, covers our future: How can we improve our tools and processes moving forward? Take the next seven minutes to write your observations silently on sticky notes.

## How to run it

### 1. Introduce columns and write cards (8 minutes)

Read the opening script and point to the three category columns. Participants write silently on sticky notes, putting one idea per note. People may write across all categories or focus on one. Neutral examples: for The Shamrock, write 'CI pipeline automated test runs' or 'Thanks Sarah for covering on-call'; for Banishing Snakes, write 'Daily standup routinely runs 35 minutes'; for Root and Grow, write 'Set a 15-minute hard stop on standup with an offline parking lot'.

### 2. Post and group notes (10 minutes)

Participants stick their notes under the matching columns. The facilitator reads the notes aloud briefly and groups duplicates together with the room's consent.

### 3. Discuss and prioritize obstacles (14 minutes)

Focus on the Banishing Snakes column. Identify the top recurring themes, capping full discussion to the top 3 or 4 themes. If more than four themes exist, give each participant 3 dot stickers to vote on the issues most critical to resolve. Tally votes on the board.

### 4. Build actions and assign owners (13 minutes)

Shift to the Root and Grow column. Build clear, specific improvement actions for the top 2 or 3 prioritized obstacles. Ask for a single primary owner and a target date for each action. Do not create more than 3 total actions. Any suggestion lacking a willing owner is recorded as an open question for future backlog review.

### 5. Confirm actions and debrief (5 minutes)

Read back the finalized action items, their owners, and target dates. Ask one or both debrief questions to close the meeting.


## Debrief questions

- Which banished obstacle will make the biggest daily difference once removed?
- What support do the action owners need from the rest of the team this week?

**Finished output:** A shared board of team feedback and a documented list of up to three concrete action items, each with a named owner and target completion date.

## Remote

Set up a digital board with the three columns. Participants add digital sticky notes during the writing phase. Use the board timer and built-in voting features for prioritization. Record action owners and due dates directly into the shared document or sprint tracker.

## Hybrid

Maintain the primary board on a digital platform accessible to all. In-room participants contribute via their laptops or a designated scribe types physical notes onto the shared board so remote participants see inputs simultaneously.

## Access and participation choices

- Participants may submit anonymous notes on digital boards or hand physical notes to the facilitator to place.
- Anyone may choose to observe silently or contribute only to praise or shout-outs without disclosing team critiques.

## If the session gets stuck

**Participants write vague complaints like 'communication was bad' under Banishing Snakes.**

Ask the group for an objective instance: 'Which specific channel, handoff, or meeting broke down, and what happened?'

**No one volunteers to own a necessary action item under Root and Grow.**

Narrow the action to a 10-minute discovery task or convert it into an explicit topic for the next sprint planning session rather than assigning it to an unwilling participant.


## Terms used here

- Retrospective: A structured team meeting held at the end of an iteration or project to reflect on past work and agree on practical improvements.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed on EasyRetro template library by Tchales Jr., inspired by an earlier concept from Retrolog.io.

Retained the three core columns and folkloric framing from Tchales Jr. on EasyRetro: The Trinity and Shamrock (Technology, Process, People), Banishing Snakes (processes and obstacles to drop), and the Walking Stick Rooting into a Tree (improvement actions). UWT expanded the running time to 50 minutes to allow realistic discussion and ownership assignment for up to 16 participants, bounded action creation to a maximum of 3 key items, added explicit prompts and neutral examples across all three columns, and structured dot voting and debrief steps.

[EasyRetro](https://easyretro.io/templates/saint-patricks-day-retrospective/)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/saint-patrick-s-day-retrospective/