Time
Depends on how deep the discussion goes but at least 15 minutes
Description
This diagnostic tool gives teams a quick way to assess the health of their team in three key areas: Caring (engagement), Closeness (relationships) and Commitment (dedication to the team and its goals).
Materials
- Pens and paper for each person (markers can also be used)
Preparation
- Draw an example of the bar chart to show later. It can look something like the one below:
Procedure
Use the following script (or modify to suit your needs):
- “We are going to do a quick assessment that will help you to assess the health of your team and go deep quickly in sharing reasons why it may not be as healthy as it could be.”
- “This diagnostic tool measures three elements of your team:
- Caring – which is your personal level of engagement or motivation about the work you are doing together
- Closeness – which is how you feel about your relationships with your team members
- Commitment – which is how dedicated you are to staying with the team and supporting the work that you are doing together”
- “You will assess each of these individually and about how you personally feel.”
- “Then you will share your assessment with each other and tell why you answered the way you did.”
- “I would like you to rate each of these three elements on a 1-10 scale. 1 is low; 10 is high.”
- “And I would like for you to chart it for us so that we can see a visual of how you are feeling. The chart should look like this…” (Show an example that you have drawn beforehand.)
- “Okay, go ahead and make your charts. There are no wrong answers, because you are just putting down how you feel.” (Allow a few minutes for them to make their charts. Describe the three categories again if you need to. When they are all done, have them go around the group and individually share their charts. Ask them to explain each of their answers, and allow the others to ask questions. However, don’t allow anyone to tell a person that they are wrong for feeling the way that they do.)
- “It’s important to note that a score of 10 on each of these elements isn’t necessary for all teams to be healthy. Some teams are fine with lower scores in ‘Closeness,’ for example. What do you think are healthy scores for your team?” (Allow them to discuss their thoughts on this until they come to an agreement. Then, ask them to discuss what needs to happen to get the scores to the optimal levels. Finally, have them create a plan and ask for their commitment to act on it.)
- “Great work! You can use this tool anytime you want to do a quick temperature check on your team’s health. Now that you’ve been through the process once, it should go pretty fast in the future.”
Teach Them 