If an organization is not agile at a basic team level, it’s going to be really difficult to build an agile enterprise. Teams are the basic building block of an organization, and an organization built on a foundation of dysfunctional teams is certain to be failing. Development of products and services by such teams are sure to miss the mark in terms of quality, on-time delivery and resulting customer satisfaction. Team dysfunction can lead to a cascade of problems within an organization, including serious issues like retention of key talent. It is therefore important to get a reading on what is going on at a team level to be able to identify problems and address them.
Team Health surveys can help organizations diagnose fundamental issues impeding effective team operation. Lack of trust or psychological safety can severely impact team performance. Trust is necessary for teams to engage in unfiltered conflict around solving problems and brainstorming new ideas. Where there is trust, information flows freely and issues get solved, not avoided. Team health surveys can help identify issues within the team that need attention.
Surveys should be easy to take (ten minutes or less) and offer convenience (can be completed on any device). Organizations should be able to tailor survey questions to their specific needs and situation. Good surveys generate actionable data. Survey data should enable teams to see their strengths and areas needing improvement: How many people on the team think we consistently apply our Definition of Done?
Definition: A survey is a process of asking questions that are answered by a defined group of people to get data that can be used to make decisions.
A Likert scale is common way to structure surveys. Questions are based on a a five-point-point scale, with choices ranging from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree so the survey can provide a holistic view of people’s opinions. All Likert scales also include a mid-point response – neither agree nor disagree, for those who are neutral on the subject matter.
Survey respondents should be able to provide input anonymously, and survey results should be easy to interpret and actionable. This is where a Likert-based survey helps.
Conducting a survey is a process, and as such it should have inputs and outputs, and follow a sequence of steps. In this sense, a survey is like a retrospective, conducted asynchronously, and follows a roughly similar set of steps:
- Create the survey questionnaire and share it with the team
- Collect the responses and generate insights
- Decide what actions to take
The last step should of course be taken as a result of a conversation with the whole team.
If the survey is conducted regularly and the data saved, it will be possible to measure progress over time.