At least once every three months, healthy teams care for themselves with a health check. This can be as simple as taking an hour to talk over the following:
- Are we still operating by the same basic ground rules? Revisit previously agreed-upon norms such as how you communicate, how often and when you meet, how you make decisions and how you handle conflict.
- Do our individual roles still make sense?
- What’s our #1 priority for the next 3 months? What are the main 3-4 steps to get that done?
- What other major goals do we need to accomplish in the next 3 months?
About once a year, your team deserves a little more effort. Take a day or two away with each other to do a more thorough check on the internal health of your team. Many teams figure out how to do annual strategic planning, but most tend to shortchange the effort needed to maintain internal health.
The Team Health Check is a resource to help you see what you need to give more attention to:
How to do a health check:
Each member completes a 15 minute assessment of the team on the basic qualities of team health: God dependence, trust, communication, commitment & purpose. Then the team gathers to share their observations with each other, and finally identify some action steps to work on together.
You can do this on your own, but it can be even more helpful by getting an outside coach to help your team discuss it together.