Plays of the month: Prioritize your team’s health before prioritizing the next project

[Kristen Roth]

Does your team press pause before jumping into the next project? Or do you tend to go directly from one project to the next? If you fall into the latter category and haven't taken a breather in a while, there's no better time to hit that pause button than before you kick off your next one. 

⏸ Taking some time to evaluate your team's wellbeing, analyze your team's health, and understand your strengths and weaknesses is worth it. ⏸

The Atlassian team has observed 8 attributes in common among healthy, high-performing project teams. The Health Monitor is a chance for your team to get a reading on each one. After running a Health Monitor, you'll be able to identify other Plays to run with your team that will help you build muscle in your weak areas. (And a quick note to those who might already be familiar with the Health Monitor: it might be time for another visit 😉).

To get even more out of your pause-and-reset moment, consider running the My User Manual play along with your Health Monitor to answer the nitty-gritty questions about how each team member likes to work. Delivering great work together requires empathy and understanding, but that doesn't always come along naturally. 

-----

When's the last time your team took some time to evaluate how well you're working together and set expectations? Has it been a while, or are you good about making it a regular thing? We'd love to hear from you in the comments! 

[Srinatha T]

@Kristen Roth , very nice article. I will talk to my manager and see if we can try out the health monitor. Seems interesting to me.

[Kristen Roth]

Great! Please do let us know if you give it a go, @Srinatha T

[Patrícia Fortunato Montenegro]

Hi @Kristen Roth

Pretty important! Thanks for this reminder; we always need to check our development and improve as a team.

Thank you! 🤗🤗

[Kristen Roth]

Thanks for reading, @Patrícia Fortunato Montenegro . Yes we do! We're all a constant work in progress.

[Patrícia Fortunato Montenegro]

It was my pleasure fo sure, @Kristen Roth 🤗🙏🏽

[Karthick S]

Thanks for sharing this @Kristen Roth and emphazing on the health which matters the most!

[Kristen Roth]

Absolutely! No matter how well things seem to be going, regular team health check-ins are a must.

[James Richards]

I've done this many times in my last team. It's a good way to rip the band-aid off some of the sores you have, but it's important to make sure you deal with any trends before they get worse.

[Dave Mathijs]

@James Richards What kind of "trends" for example?

[Darryl Lee]

Totally can relate. The periodical surveys and a team-health dashboard make the things clear!

[Elizabeth Barr]

YES ^^

[Valerie Knapp]

I really like this idea of a dashboard, can you share an example @Darryl Lee ?

[Srinatha T]

Nice article

[Srinatha T]

Thank you for insightful articles @Kristen Roth . These are really helpful 

[Elizabeth Barr]

Great food for thought, @Kristen Roth .

[Brant Schroeder]

@Kristen Roth this is a great reminder.  Having a healthy team is so important to being successful on any project.

[Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_]

Great article, thanks for sharing

[Srinatha T]

Great article . Thanks

[Srinatha T]

This article is kind of eye opener for me. We get so busy with work that such small things which add so much value in building a great team are always missed. Again, thanks @Kristen Roth 

[Christel Gray]

We tend to jump from one project to the next, but do celebrate milestones, too. However, I think looking at the Health Monitor is a great option.

[Sri Kumar]

Thanks for sharing this 🙂

[Wouter Bruinings]

I love working scrum, but the name says it: "Sprints". It can sometimes feel like trying to get through a marathon by attempting to sprint short distances. Creating the opportunity to have a break can then be difficult. 

Anyway, I don't believe any long distance runner would recommend a sprint small distances to the end of a marathon approach. 

[Connor]

This is incredibly relevant considering the stress and turmoil the world has experienced the past couple years with Covid. 

[Brittany Wispell]

Thanks for the reminder of this playbook! 

[Summer.Hogan]

Great idea! And great advice! 

[Craig Nodwell]

No pause, directly into the next one.  A lot of folks experiencing burnout. 

[Sakina]

well said :)

[Zulfiqar Bin Zafar]

Great article to read and totally agreed

[Dave Mathijs]

Our team organises a quarterly retro to discuss the health of the team. Of course, this doesn't prevent the team members to raise concerns whenever there are any, whether it is ad hoc, during the bi-weekly team meeting, a knowledge sharing session, a buddy talk, ...

[Karim ABO HASHISH]

i do really like the playbook exercises to facilitate team assessments and building exercises. I'm planning to dive deeper with more practices utilizing the playbook games.

[Sayed Bares _ServiceRocket_]

Thanks for sharing, great advice!

[Jonathan V.]

I love this idea, thanks for sharing. As part of my year-end review with the team, I think this play will come in nicely to gauge how the team feels.