Stuck in the Slump: What to Do When Your Team Can’t See the Wins
'An Agile team walking from a grey, gloomy landscape into a colorful one with signs of progress and appreciation' by GPT-4o and Sora

Stuck in the Slump: What to Do When Your Team Can’t See the Wins

3 minute read

When Nothing Feels Like a Win

Some sprints just feel heavy.

You wrap up the retro and nobody seems energized. Stand-ups are dry. Everything feels like a slow grind, even if the team is delivering.

It’s not always about performance. Sometimes, the team has just lost the ability to see the good stuff. That doesn't mean things aren't working, ,it just means they’re hard to notice.

Let’s change that.

Why Teams Lose Sight of the Good

Teams don’t ignore wins on purpose. But certain patterns make it hard to see them:

  • Negativity bias: Our brains are wired to pay more attention to problems
  • Burnout: When people are drained, even big wins feel like "just another task"
  • Process over people: Constant focus on improvement can make teams feel like they’re never enough
  • No feedback loops: Without recognition, effort becomes invisible

According to Harvard Business Review, peer recognition is more meaningful than top-down praise. And Forbes reports that employees who feel appreciated are 2.7x more likely to be highly engaged.

Signs Your Team Might Be Stuck

You might recognize a few of these:

  • Stand-ups feel like status reports
  • Retros focus only on what went wrong
  • People say "we didn’t really accomplish anything"
  • Wins are quickly dismissed or skipped over

These are signs the team is functioning, but not feeling their progress.

How to Help Your Team See the Wins Again

Here are a few lightweight but powerful ways to help shift perspective:

1. Reframe the Retro

Add a moment up front:

"What’s one small thing that went better than expected?"

Rotate facilitators to shake up repetition and bias.

2. Try a "Bright Spots" Ritual

Start a weekly thread or kudos board. Celebrate:

  • Unblocking a teammate
  • Handling feedback well
  • Solving a small, messy bug

Keep it casual but consistent.

3. Make Appreciation a Habit

Encourage peer-to-peer recognition. Tools like esteam.life make it easy to build this into your workflow.

4. Look Back, Not Just Forward

In retros, ask:

"Compared to last sprint, what did we improve?"

Track quality, collaboration, even how people felt.

5. Talk About Energy, Not Just Output

Invite emotional reflection:

"What drained us? What gave us energy?"

You’ll learn more than any burndown chart could show.

Why It Works

Appreciation isn’t just polite, it’s powerful.

  • It triggers dopamine, boosting morale and motivation
  • It builds psychological safety, so teams take more risks
  • It reminds people that what they do matters

When teams learn to see wins again, they start moving forward again.

Conclusion: There Are Always Wins, We Just Need to Look

Not every sprint will be perfect. But every sprint has something worth celebrating.

Start small.
Celebrate effort, not just outcomes.
Make appreciation part of the team culture.

Your team might be doing better than they think, they just need help seeing it.