This is something we’ve used internally to test and explore whether the team values we have written down actually reflect reality. Team values on a piece of paper are all well and good to support discussion and alignment, but your shared values are those that you as a team exhibit and that influence your decision making. So it’s nice to occasionally check-in on whether they align.
The primary aim of this is to start a conversation and to trigger some reflection and thought. And as always with these sorts of events, it requires a level of psychological safety and willingness to be open and have an honest conversation.
We use Slido for this, but any tool that allows people to anonymously respond in isolation before all responses are displayed at the same time will work.
And these aren’t perfect, and there’s definitely scope for improvement. Questions, feedback and suggestions are all more than welcomed.
Current Sentiment
These questions are all designed to understand whether people feel like there are shared values in the team, whether these guide personal decision making (shared values should mean consistent decision making), and whether breaches of these values are called out and discussed (making them resilient).
All of these questions are 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) type questions, and often a useful warm up.
- We have a strong set of shared values that guide us.
- Our shared values guide our collective day-to-day decision-making.
- We hold each other to account against our shared values.
Current Behaviours
These questions are design to elicit the current reality of what what values people feel like are being displayed, and whether everyone has the same understanding of the current agreement (if you have one).
All of these questions are multiple answer word cloud type questions. Key here is the psychological safety for people to be able to respond honestly without just parroting the official line.
- What is our current agreement on the values we want to exhibit as a team?
- What values are we actually currently exhibiting as a team?
Looking Forward
These final questions should follow some reflection on the current sentiment and behaviours, and support a conversation about change and a desired future. The first two are negative (Triz) type questions on values to avoid, the second are on values that are important to people, and whether there’s any consensus on collectively agreeing to try and adopt them.
All of these questions are multiple answer word cloud type questions.
- What values should we be careful not to adopt as a team?
- Which of these values do we exhibit today (even if only a little)?
- The values that are important to me personally are…
- Which of these values should we consider adopting as a team?