# Mad · Sad · Glad — Facilitator Guide

> Folder: `mad-sad-glad` · Category: reviews · 6–20 people · 20 min · offline + online · print props · tool pack
> License: CC BY 4.0

A 20-minute, 6–20 person retrospective. Everyone writes what about the last cycle made them mad, sad, and glad — then the team clusters the notes, dot-votes what resonates, and lands one concrete, owned action per colour. It's faster than "what went well / what didn't", and because it names feelings, it surfaces the things a status report never will.

## Objectives

By the end of the activity, participants will have:

1. Put the emotional truth of the last cycle on the wall — what made them mad, sad, and glad — in their own words.
2. Clustered and dot-voted the notes into the themes the whole team actually shares, not the loudest voice at the table.
3. Left with one concrete action per colour, each with a named owner and a revisit date.

## When to use this activity

- A team finishing a sprint, project or quarter that needs to name how it actually felt — not just what shipped.
- A retro that keeps producing action items nobody owns; feelings get aired, then nothing changes.
- You have 6–20 people and 20 minutes, and the mood of the cycle is the thing you can't see in a status report.

## Why naming feelings beats good/bad

People rarely say "I'm quietly demotivated" in a standup — but given a Sad column they'll write it down. Mad/Sad/Glad gets the emotional truth onto the wall fast, then forces the one discipline retros usually skip: an owner and a date for each theme. Mad is energy you can redirect; Sad is morale you have to rebuild; Glad is what to protect. Naming which is which is what turns a mood into three actionable themes.

## Setup

**Space:** three labelled columns on a wall or a shared board — **Mad**, **Sad**, **Glad**. Above 20 people, run two groups on the same board theme and compare the clusters at the end.

**Materials per person:** a stack of sticky notes and a pen — one item per note, silently, no names on notes. Dots for the vote.

**Materials for the room:** the card faces from `mad-sad-glad-prop-cards.pdf` — mad, sad, glad, cluster & vote, one action each, owner & revisit.

**Grouping:** one team that just finished a shared cycle (sprint, project, quarter). It runs the same way online on a shared board.

**Roles:** everyone writes and votes; you hold the clock, the two rules, and the line between systems and people.

**Optional:** put `mad-sad-glad-activity-poster.pdf` (A3) on the wall so "one item per note" and "one owned action per colour" stay in view. No projector, no account, no online form needed.

## How to run it

| Time | Phase | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| 0–5 | Write | Silent, private notes: one item per note across Mad / Sad / Glad. No names on notes. |
| 5–11 | Post & cluster | Everyone posts to their column. Read them aloud, then group duplicates into clusters. |
| 11–17 | Vote & choose | Dot-vote the clusters that resonate. For the top item in each colour, the team picks one concrete action — not a wish. |
| 17–20 | Own & revisit | Each action gets a named owner and a revisit date. Write the three actions where everyone can see them. |

## The card

The three colour cards (mad, sad, glad) hold the columns; the "cluster & vote" card marks the middle move, and "one action each" plus "owner & revisit" are the two rules the retro must not skip. Keep them from `mad-sad-glad-prop-cards.pdf` on the wall so the discipline outlasts the conversation.

## Failure modes

- **The Mad column turns into blame.** Keep it to systems and events, not people — reframe "X dropped the ball" into "the handover had no owner." Fixable, and less poisonous.
- **Everyone writes safe, obvious Glad notes.** Ask "what would have made this cycle genuinely better for you, not just fine?" to reach the real Sad and Mad under the politeness.
- **You get actions but no owners.** Stop at three actions total — one per colour — and don't close until each has a name and a date. Three that happen beat ten that get posted.

## Variations

- **First retro ever:** run it anonymous on a shared doc; people won't say hard things with their name on a Sad note.
- **A long, draining project:** give Sad and Glad equal airtime to Mad — morale often needs acknowledging before problems get fixed.
- **Keep going:** re-run each cycle; the shift in what lands in each colour is the health signal.

## Facilitation notes

- A thin Glad column is itself a finding — say it out loud: the team is running on frustration alone.
- When the top Mad item is something leadership controls and can't change, name that honestly so it doesn't rot as an unowned gripe.

## Put it on the wall

Print `mad-sad-glad-activity-poster.pdf` (A3) to hold the three columns, the minute flow and the two rules on one wall while you run it.

## Props in this folder

- `mad-sad-glad-prop-cards.pdf` — poker-spec print sheet (63.5 × 88.9 mm, bleed and cut guides): mad, sad, glad, cluster & vote, one-action-each and owner & revisit cards, blanks, branded backs
- `mad-sad-glad-run-sheet.pdf` — the print edition: this run sheet + the debrief, bound as one A4 document with bookmarks (`-Letter.pdf` is US Letter)
- `mad-sad-glad-activity-poster.pdf` — the whole retro on one A3 wall sheet
- `mad-sad-glad-guide.md` · `-debrief.md` · `-start-here.md` — the facilitator guide, the debrief, the one-page start here
- `mad-sad-glad-license.md` — what you may do, how to rebrand, what shipped when
- `SKILL.md` · `mad-sad-glad.zip` — the machine-readable manifest, and the whole folder in one download

## Agent version

Every file in this folder has a stable public URL — an AI agent can fetch the cards, the debrief and this run sheet with three curl commands (see `SKILL.md`). The paper version needs nothing but sticky notes, three columns and a pen each.