Every team has three processes.

Whether they're aware of it or not, every team has three processes in place:

*The process you have*: The one that's written down, your working agreement.

*The process you do*: The actual actions the team performs, reality.

*The process you want*: The process the team wishes they were following.

We can better improve our way of working if we understand what these different processes look like in our team:

What are we doing that we haven't agreed? Is it something we want?

What aren't we doing that we want to do? Is it something we agreed to?

Are there parts in our agreements that we follow even though we don't want to do it?

Here's a retrospective you can do with your team to better identify how you can improve your working agreements:

                             .───────────.
                        _.──'             `───.
                      ,'                       `.
                    ,'                           `.
                  ,'                               `.
                 ╱              Agreed               ╲
                ╱            Not Practiced            ╲
               ;              Not Wanted               :
               ;                                       :
              ;                                         :
              │                                         │
              │                                         │
              :                                         ;
               .───────────.             .───────────. ;
          _.──':            `───.   _.──'             `───.
        ,'      ╲     Agreed     `,'       Agreed     ╱    `.
      ,'         ╲Not Practiced ,' `.    Practiced   ╱       `.
    ,'            ╲   Wanted  ,'     `.  Not Wanted ╱          `.
   ╱               `.        ╱  Agreed ╲          ,'             ╲
  ╱                  `.     ╱ Practiced ╲       ,'                ╲
 ;                     `.  ;    Wanted   :    ,'                   :
 ;                       `─;─.           :.──'                     :
;                         ;   `─────────' :                         :
│    Not Agreed           │               │           Not Agreed    │
│    Not Practiced        │  - Not Agreed │            Practiced    │
:    Wanted               :  - Practiced  ;           Not Wanted    ;
 :                         :   - Wanted  ;                         ;
 :                         :             ;                         ;
  ╲                         ╲           ╱                         ╱
   ╲                         ╲         ╱                         ╱
    ╲                         ╲       ╱                         ╱
     `.                        `.   ,'                        ,'
       `.                        `.'                        ,'
         `.                     ,' `.                     ,'
           `───.           _.──'     `───.           _.──'
                `─────────'               `─────────'

1. Draw a large Venn diagram representing your three processes.

2. Label each section according to whether it's agreed, practiced, and wanted.

3. Take some time to write some stickies, and place them in the appropriate area.

4. Discuss each of the blocks and try to understand why.

5. Do we have different views on what we want? How can we bring this together?

6. Finally, discuss actions that can help you get closer to a better process:

1. What things should you add or remove from your agreement?

2. What should you start or stop doing?

As your process improves, your needs will change, and these three circles will grow further apart. Do this often, and you'll get closer to *the process you need*.

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