Temperature reading retrospectives¶
Inspired by Virginia Satir’s Temperature Reading, expanded with timelines for real organisational retrospectives.
This process combines a factual sequence of events, the team’s shifting energy, and a structured reflection process. It grounds discussion in reality, captures both what happened and how it was experienced, and turns that into actionable learning.
The flow¶
Timeline of events: map the key milestones, decisions, and incidents.
Energy timeline: layer in how the team’s energy rose and dipped along the way.
Temperature reading: reflect on what went well, what did not, what was learned, open questions, and next actions.
The result is a retrospective that surfaces hidden dynamics, strengthens collective insight, and builds the capacity for continuous learning.
Why the energy timeline matters¶
Most retrospectives treat events as things that happened to a neutral team. The energy timeline makes the team’s experience of events visible as a parallel record. A decision that looked routine in the event log may have triggered a significant dip in energy that is only visible when you overlay the two timelines.
This is where the Satir influence is most direct. The energy dips are often the places where survival stances appeared: someone placated rather than named a problem, someone computed rather than felt the weight of what was happening, someone disengaged. Making those moments visible, without blame, is the first condition for learning from them.
The temperature reading structure¶
Virginia Satir’s Temperature Reading gives each section of the reflection a distinct purpose.
Appreciations: what worked, who contributed something worth naming. This is not performance review. It is honest acknowledgement, which is the starting condition for psychological safety.
Concerns and wishes: what did not work, what would have helped. The “wish” framing matters: it invites the constructive version of the concern rather than just the complaint.
Puzzles: things that are not yet understood. Naming a puzzle without needing to resolve it immediately is a sign that the team can tolerate uncertainty, which is a capability worth building.
New information: anything that emerged during the period that changes how the situation is understood.
Hopes and visions for the next cycle: what the team wants to move toward, in concrete terms.