Teams
Team health check
Seven short monthly questions meant for the team's own use. If HR starts comparing these scores across departments, we'd expect the answers to get less candid.
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Seven questions, monthly
How much do you trust the people on your team to follow through?
1 = not at all, 5 = completely
How clear is what the team is working toward right now?
1 = not clear, 5 = very clear
How sustainable does the pace of work feel?
1 = not sustainable, 5 = very sustainable
When you need help, how easily can you get it from your team?
1 = not easily, 5 = very easily
How much do you enjoy working with this team?
1 = not at all, 5 = very much
Compared with last month, how is the team doing?
Pick one
- Better
- About the same
- Worse
- Not sure
What is one thing that would make the team healthier?
Written answer, optional
We wrote these questions for this survey and they are not a validated scale. You can edit them once the survey opens in Gists. If you copy them into another tool, check what it records about who answered.
Before you run this
Monthly is the upper limit. If this team also gets company surveys, drop a month rather than stack them.
The decision it helps with
What should this team talk about in its next meeting?
Running it
Monthly, led by the team's own manager. Each question names its own scale, so a habit of agreeing with statements can't inflate the result. HR should look at patterns only and stay out of the discussion.
What the results might look like
These are made-up examples to show the patterns, not real data.
Pace falling over months
3.8, 3.4, 3.1 on question 3.
- What it means
- It's getting harder to sustain the work.
- What it doesn't mean
- It doesn't tell you the cause, and one month alone isn't a trend.
- What to do
- Cut or postpone something and say out loud what you cut.
Trust high, clarity low
4.4 on trust and 2.8 on what the team is working toward.
- What it means
- The team works well together and is unsure of the goal.
- What it doesn't mean
- It doesn't mean the goal is wrong.
- What to do
- Spend the next meeting on priorities.
What to tell people afterwards
Say what you'll change as a team, then check on it next month.
What to measure next, and when
Next month's check, and the psychological safety survey if people seem to be holding back.
In a small team
Results show only when 5 or more people answer. A team below 5 rolls up into the team above it. A group is also held back when comparing it with another group could reveal a small team. HR and named leaders see every team with 5 or more answers. Each manager sees only their own team. Employees see no team scores. Themes only by default. Word-for-word answers are a company setting, off unless turned on, and employees see a notice before they write.
What makes it worth doing
We wouldn't expect much from the form on its own. Its use is in giving someone a reason to say in the next team meeting, “Pace dropped again, what do we want to do about it?”
Tannenbaum and Cerasoli's meta-analysis of 46 samples (2,136 people) found debriefs improved effectiveness by about 25% on average against a control group (d = .67) (Tannenbaum & Cerasoli, 2013). Debriefs in those studies were structured reflection, with a possible benefit from facilitation. A monthly form gives you the prompt, and the team still has to have the conversation.
Mathieu and colleagues' review of a decade of team research moved towards treating teams as changing over time (Mathieu et al., 2008). That's the argument for a short repeated check over one long annual one.
Earlier versions of these questions asked people to agree or disagree with statements. Saris and colleagues found that format produced much lower-quality answers than questions with their own response options (Saris et al., 2010), so each question here names its own scale.
A team of seven
Results appear only if 5 answer, and a written point can be traced to its author in a group that size. Say that when you send it. If the team is holding something back, try the psychological safety survey next.
Related
Sources
- Tannenbaum, S. I., Cerasoli, C. P. (2013). Do Team and Individual Debriefs Enhance Performance? A Meta-Analysis. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 55, 231-245. doi:10.1177/0018720812448394
- Mathieu, J., Maynard, M. T., Rapp, T., Gilson, L. (2008). Team Effectiveness 1997-2007: A Review of Recent Advancements and a Glimpse Into the Future. Journal of Management, 34, 410-476. doi:10.1177/0149206308316061
- Saris, W. E., Revilla, M., Krosnick, J. A., Shaeffer, E. M. (2010). Comparing questions with agree/disagree response options to questions with item-specific response options. Survey Research Methods, 4, 61-79. ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/article/view/2682