Advice for two retrospectives in one sprint(without and with product owner)

I have done that !!!!
Many years ago i inherited a team which had lot of issues . The PO and team didn't trust each other.

I had my first retrospective with Product Owner (PO) alone and my second retrospective with team but without PO. Usually followed by a third retro meeting with PO and team . During the first two meetings PO and team talked about the issues they had with each other. I shared the feedback to each other along with my coaching and mentoring. During the third meeting we focused on the product and common issues which we could solve together. The focus was to create trust and transparency.

I have seen this in many other teams also because of many reasons. Team members were not willing to talk about all the issues in front of PO because they don't trust the PO.

In my case after lot of coaching and mentoring both groups agreed to have a common retrospective. Soon we became one of the best teams in our group.

Retrospective is the meeting where everyone come together for the inspection of the previous sprint . This is a very important part of the empirical process. If team members don't trust each other then they will not speak openly. A coach/ScrumMaster will have to talk to the individuals to understand their concerns. Everyone should feel safe to speak in the meeting. Also ensure that no one blames anyone personally. Once you understand the problem you can act on it. you might not be able to make change in one day , It is a gradual process. Once you establish the trust with everyone including the team and PO they will be open to talk about the issues openly. When you reach this state you will end up having only one meeting with everyone. Once the team matures more you will find them talking about issues and take corrective actions as and when it is needed. They wont even wait for retrospective meetings.

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