Agile Facilitation method

Mad Sad Glad

Shows which experiences caused anger, sadness, or joy and which working condition should change.

Mad Sad Glad collects experiences from an agreed period under anger, sadness and happiness. Participants choose the emotional category themselves; different reactions to the same event can coexist.

Core question

Which experiences made us mad, sad or glad, and which working condition do we want to change?

Plan Method guide

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Participants: 3-10 participants
Time: 45–75 minutes retrospective; later review

Period and safety
Period and safety
Bound the shared period and explain that emotional categorisation is voluntary and personal.
Collect Mad, Sad and Glad
Collect Mad, Sad and Glad
Silently write concrete experiences on cards and personally assign Mad, Sad or Glad.
Understand experiences
Understand experiences
Clarify cards and group related themes with consent; retain differing feelings.
Trial an improvement
Trial an improvement
Choose one influenceable theme and agree a small change with expected effect.

Trial one or two selected changes during the next work period; evaluate effects at the agreed later review.

A good fit when

For team retrospectives that need to discuss emotional experiences and the working conditions behind them.

Ideal for

Team Health
Retrospectives
Change Reflection

Not good for

Pure process measurement
Groups without psychological safety

Outputs

Experiences and team experiment
Three collections of personal experiences, clarified themes and a verifiable team experiment with owner and review date.
Team experiment with review
The agreement describes the team experiment, its owner, duration, and later review signal. It also records useful Glad practices the team wants to preserve.

Mad Sad Glad· worksheet

Fictional example

Mad Sad Glad collects experiences from an agreed period under anger, sadness and happiness. Participants choose the emotional category themselves; different reactions to the same event can coexist.

Mad

Which specific experience made me angry, and why?

Fictional: three last-minute Friday changes made my tested work uncertain again.

Sad

Which experience disappointed or saddened me?

Our shared learning session was cancelled for the second time; I miss the exchange.

Glad

What made me glad and what should we preserve about it?

A colleague immediately helped isolate a difficult bug; pairing reduced the burden.

Selected theme

Which connection is understood and within the team’s influence?

Changes become visible too late. The team can introduce a brief daily scope check.

Experiment and review

What changes, who supports it and how will effects be reviewed later?

For two weeks, scope check at 11:00, owner Lea. At the next retro we review the number and effects of unannounced changes.

All example details are fictional and illustrate the application.

Retrium: Mad, Sad, Glad

First step

Define period and team boundary, agree confidentiality and keep personal contributions voluntary.

Open the method guide

Where to go next?

Operations

5 Whys

Investigates a recurring sad topic with a chain of causes.

Agile

Working Agreements

Anchors the agreed improvement as a new working condition for the team.

Deep dive

Purpose

When a team's or workshop's mood needs to become readable, it structures emotional signals with little setup. It makes strain, relief, and sources of energy tangible.

How it works

It sorts feedback by emotional coloring and shows where frustration, pain, or positive resonance lie. The categories don't make mood an end in itself but open access to causes, needs, and next conversations.

In detail

Mad Sad Glad works because it takes emotional reactions seriously, surfacing cues that are often lost in purely factual reviews. Good use doesn't confuse feelings with findings but translates them into situations, patterns, and concrete needs. This opens access to team dynamics and work quality without the conversation getting stuck in mere venting.

Facilitation

Set a clear time frame for the review and introduce the three emotions as a way into concrete situations. The format becomes rich as soon as recurring conditions rather than single events become visible behind joy, anger, or disappointment. At the end, a few topics should be turned into improvement decisions or experiments.

The method guide walks execution through 4 phases, timing, 4 pitfalls, and clear stop criteria.

Open method guide

Your perspective

Does this method help with your work?

Your feedback helps shape the next improvements to methodatlas.

Sources and topics

Topics

Retrospective Team Reflection

Sources

Retrium: Mad, Sad, Gladsupport.retrium.comPrimary provider guide to silent collection, grouping and deriving actions. Example and safety rules are editorial.

In playbooks

Turn Retrospective into ImprovementMove from team feeling to prioritized learning points, experiments, and verifiable change.

Artifact templates

Mad Sad Glad: WorksheetDefine period and team boundary, agree confidentiality and keep personal contributions voluntary.

markdown

mad-sad-glad-working-template.md

Define period and team boundary, agree confidentiality and keep personal contributions voluntary.

Mad Sad Glad: Worksheet

Question

To be confirmed

Desired outcome

To be confirmed

Scope

Complete retrospective Time: 45–75 minutes retrospective; later review

Complete this worksheet on paper or in your own document during the work.

Preparation for this scope

Method setup

Materials: Three fields labelled Mad, Sad and Glad, cards, timer, period observations and an experiment field.
Roles: The affected team and a facilitator; preferably independent facilitation for conflict.
Advance information: Define period and team boundary, agree confidentiality and keep personal contributions voluntary.
Overall time needed: 45–75 minutes retrospective; later review
Setup: Provide three equal fields; allow individual writing before revealing contributions.