Regular heart beat retrospectives are a useful tool for measuring how well the team is going. As someone responsible for project delivery, you want to maximise the amount of honest feedback you get (both positive or negative) as they all might pose risk to the project.

The amount of feedback you actually get is a useful indicator rating the team’s comfort level – either with each other, or with other people they report to. I’ve seen a number of feedback sessions stifled by one or two key people that sit inside the room, as people withhold their opinions for fear of negative consequences. Controlling people typically disengage individuals from the team and reduce the effectiveness of feedback you get. Uncomfortable silence or a minimal set of feedback are both signs that people may not be entirely comfortable.

Splitting the group into smaller teams might help to improve individual’s openness, introducing a speaking token so that one person is not always talking or even asking someone to leave is a last option.