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Focus On / Focus Off Retrospective Activity

Last post 11:37 am February 26, 2016 by Andrzej Zińczuk
1 reply
Benjamin Maier
07:52 am November 24, 2015

Hi everyone,

I have a question concerning the Retrospective activity "Focus On / Focus Off" which is described in the famous "Agile Retrospectives" book by Derby and Larson.

The activity is also described here: http://pearllanguage.org/Focus_on_focus_off

The activity states one has to focus on
"Inquiry rather than Advocacy"
"Dialogue rather than Debate"
"Conversation rather than Argument"
"Understanding rather than Defending"

While I understand (and agree to) each of these statements, I'd say they are kind of redundant.

Inquiry = Understanding
Advocacy = Defending
Dialogue = Conversation
Debate = Argument

I really don't see the differences here... I would really appreciate it, if someone could help me here :)

As I'm not a native speaker, maybe my question is just a misunderstanding of the words...

Thanks a lot!

Regards,
BeMa

Andrzej Zińczuk
11:37 am February 26, 2016

Inquiry rather than Advocacy - understanding the need,issue instead defending - let's truly try to understand others needs instead of pushing back saying it is not our fault, we are not in charge of this bla bla bla

Dialogue rather than Debate - yes conversation, being a partner instead of listening to strongest voices

Conversation rather than Argument - try to have win win vs win lose game


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