Team Health Check Dialog Protocol
Protocol Duration
30 minutes
Materials
Printout of results for each team member, colored pens, chart paper, and/or whiteboard.
Groupings
If participant numbers are greater than 6, then seat participants in groups of 3-6. Group dialog should be facilitated in this manner:
For groups of 3-6 ask each person to contribute as per the instructions below.
For larger groups, ask each sub-group to share with each other and then report to the larger group with a single answer encompassing their individual responses.
The facilitator should synthesize all responses into a collective statement.
Facilitation Instructions
As a facilitator, you are meant to provoke dialog, summarize responses and identify opportunities for building consensus. Please refrain from leading discussions with your own personal experience or by providing examples. Encourage participants to first share based on their understanding and then follow up with your own personal insights.
The 12 steps
#1
Ask participants to quietly reflect on the assumptions they were making before taking the THC. Ensure there is no talking for one minute. Once you feel all participants are ready to share, then proceed based on the instructions noted above under Groupings. Summarize ideas, feelings and opinions shared and write them on the White Board.
#2
Ask participants to quietly reflect on their thoughts and feelings after completing the THC. Ensure there is no talking for one minute. Once you feel all participants are ready to share, then proceed based on the instructions noted above under Groupings. Summarize ideas, feelings and opinions shared and write them on the White Board.
#3
Understanding the disparity between assumptions team members had when taking the assessment and how those assumptions changed after being exposed to all the statements is critical to ensuring a common understanding of this shared experience and how each team member was impacted by it.
#4
To ensure discussions are productive and stay focused on team performance it is important to post or project a Team Purpose that all team members are bought into. If your team does not have a stated purpose, then take 10-15 minutes to have each team member say in their own words what they feel the purpose of the team is and synthesize a statement that takes into account the feedback of all members. When discussions deviate from the Team Purpose, assert yourself and remind participants to limit discussion to the Team relative to the Purpose everyone has agreed to.
#5
Distribute the reports and ensure every participant has a colored pen or marker. Provide participants 3-5 minutes to review the reports and give them this one instruction:
“Circle / highlight 3 things that immediately stand out to you in this report.” Ask them to do this quietly for 2-3 minutes.
#6
Time for reviewing the report is limited at this stage, as you want to capture initial impressions and understand what data each team member is ‘looking’ for.
#7
It is important at this stage to prevent team members from sharing assumptions or opinions about what they are observing. Restrict dialog to only observations.
#8
Once you feel all participants are ready to share, then proceed based on the instructions noted above under Groupings. Build consensus on 3 observations that you feel the whole group is interested in exploring deeper.
#9
Choose or contribute one observation that is related to page 3, Team Members vs Team Leaders Perception. Write that observation on chart paper/whiteboard and ask participants to quietly reflect on that observation. A question to provoke reflection may include:
“What experiences or ideas about our team relative to that observation can contribute to this result?”.
It is important to reinforce language representing the team, such as ‘we’ and ‘our team’. If participants use language such as you or them, remind them to keep comments relevant to ‘our’ team. Once you feel all participants are ready to share, then proceed based on the instructions noted above under Groupings.
#10
Choose one observation that is related to a specific statement. Focus on one statement at a time and write that statement on chart paper/whiteboard and ask participants to quietly reflect on “What experiences or ideas were you thinking of when rating that statement?”. It is important to reinforce language representing the team, such as ‘we’ and ‘our team’. If participants use language such as you or them, remind them to keep comments relevant to ‘our’ team. Once you feel all participants are ready to share, then proceed based on the instructions noted above under Groupings.
#11
After everyone has reflected on the experiences that are associated with a particular statement, ask participants to consider actions that we as a team can take to address that performance variable. A question to provoke thought is:
“If we were to retake the THC in 6 months, what do we need to do to close the gap between our scores / reflect more positively on this statement so that the average score increases by X?”
Once you feel all participants are ready to share, then proceed based on the instructions noted above under Groupings. Capture the action items team members identify and begin considering if those actions reflect changes in process that can be delegated to team members, or if changes in Group Norms need to be made, in which case everyone must agree what that change would be.
#12
Once you have fully analyzed one statement, then proceed to the next statement. It is recommended that you limit the analysis of protocols to the top 3 observations made.
