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| Criterion | ![]() Systems Thinking Polarity Mapping | ![]() Team Design Team Cognitive Load Assessment | ![]() Agile Starfish Retrospective | ![]() Agile 4Ls Retrospective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | Polarity Mapping makes tensions between two opposing poles tangible, such as standardization and adaptation or control and autonomy. The method guards against making apparent either-or decisions prematurely. | When a team juggles too many domains, systems, or handoffs, it measures mental overload as an organizational problem. It clarifies responsibility, interaction, and load between teams. The result is captured as a cognitive-load profile and action list. | When improvement options need to be sorted more finely than just start and stop, it brings observations into clear kinds of action. This makes visible what should be done more, less, newly, or continued. | When a sprint should not only be assessed but also learned from, it captures experience in clear learning categories. It records what worked, what's missing, and what should run differently next time. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-2 h | 60-90 min | 45-90 min | 45–75 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-12 | 3-12 | 4-12 | Team members involved |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Polarity Map, Warning Signs, Balance Actions | Cognitive Load Profile, Action List | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments | 4Ls Board, Learning Themes, Improvement Actions |
Tagsno overlap | Systems thinkingTradeoffsLeadership | TeamComplexityImprovementDiagnosis | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam | RetrospectiveLearningReflectionTeam |



