4. Manage teams (4 Article)

Here are a few tips on how to set up a team-level health check.

1. Just start: You don’t have to be a psychologist to set up a Team Health Check - although it would certainly help. Echometer makes it very easy for you to select from the proposed Team Health Check items using the templates. Therefore, our recommendation: Just start and gather initial experience in the team before you try to perfect the Team Health Check!

2. Focus on the essentials: Instead of directly asking for a large number of sub-aspects, start with relatively general statements. This way, after the first results, you can specify the items more precisely if needs for action become apparent. Example of a general statement on the topic of communication:

   • “I am always informed about all news relevant to my work.”
   • Example of sub-aspects that can be included if necessary:
   • “All important updates are shared in our Dailies.”
   • “When relevant, news is also effectively shared asynchronously within the team.”
   • “Relevant news from the organization is communicated quickly enough within the team.”
   • By starting generally, you can keep the scope of the team health check small and expand it individually according to the team’s actual needs. If topics have been resolved over time, the sub-aspects can also be removed from the team health check rotation.

3. Question existing items: Are some health check items constantly assessed and no longer cause new reflections even in the retrospective? Then consider removing this item from rotation.

4. Adapt items to challenges in the team: Does your team have current challenges or specific problems? Create your own Team Health Check items that address these challenges exactly. It is also worth asking the team: “What are our biggest challenges in the team and how do we need to change ourselves and our collaboration in order to master these challenges?” The results from a brainstorming session can give you valuable impulses to adapt your Team Health Check to your team.

Learn more about how you can formulate own scale items for your team health check.

In Echometer, in addition to the suggested scale items, you can also formulate your own items for your health check.

Scale items are statements for which the survey asks for agreement:

You should pay attention to this when formulating your own scale items:

1. The right format: A Health Check item is answered on a scale from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree”. Accordingly, you cannot use open questions here. Example open question: “How have you liked our Daily in recent weeks?” Rephrasing as a scale question for the Health Check: “I have really enjoyed our Daily in recent weeks.”
2. Ask about subjective impressions: A Health Check scale item is not suitable for querying objective facts. Example: “Our dailies last a maximum of 15 minutes.” This metric can be measured objectively and is not suitable for a Health Check. Instead, you can use a Health Check scale item to capture the more difficult to grasp subjective impressions: “Our dailies are time well spent for me.”
3. Specify the framework: For many topics, the frame of reference could be interpreted differently. For example: “We constructively question requirements.” In this formulation, it is open who “we” are and what requirements are meant. Depending on the desired framework, one could therefore be more specific: “As a team, we question the requirements of our Product Owner before implementing topics.”

Take a look at our tips for setting up health checks on team- as well as health checks at workspace level.

Would you like to adjust the team health measurement of your team? It’s very easy with team templates and rotation.

Here are a few definitions

• Item rotation: The item rotation is based on the selection of items for your team. All selected items are alternately inserted into the survey drafts for your retrospectives. Once configured, the rotation automatically generates a proposal for the next survey, which you can adjust individually.
• Team templates: Echometer provides team templates to make it easier to set up the item rotation. Team templates contain a preselection of items and can be selected when setting up the team.

Note: You need team admin rights to adjust the team health.

Navigate to the “Team Health” page and select the “Edit Rotation” button there.

Here you can choose whether you want to (1) work with a team template, (2) search for individual items, or (3) create your own item.

The team templates contain selected questions on a specific topic. You can include the questions directly in your item rotation.

In the “Search & Filter” tab, you can search for items using keywords and filter them by specific topics. You can add the items to the item rotation using the “Add” button. For each item, you will be shown directly whether it is already in your item rotation and when it was last queried. If you want to remove an item from your rotation, you can do so using the “Remove” button.

Do you have an item in mind for which you cannot find a suitable wording in the list? No problem, then create an individual item under the “Own Item” section:

When creating an item, enter a German and English translation directly, as required. The new items are added to the “Own Items” category at the top of the list.

Would you like to expand your team, remove people, or assign / withdraw the team admin role?

To do this, navigate to the team member list in the team settings:

1. Under the list of team members you will find the button to add new team members.
2. On the right side of the list, you can remove team members from the team via the “x”.
3. The badge in the list is used to assign the admin role:
   a) If a member has a green-bordered ”+ Admin” button, it means that this person does not currently have team admin rights. By clicking on the button, you add these rights.
   b) If the green-filled button “Team Admin” appears, this person currently has team admin rights. If you move the mouse over the button, the button turns red and you can remove the admin rights with a click. The person will then remain as a normal team member.

To be able to edit the team members, you must have team admin rights yourself. If you don’t have these rights, you can at least check the team settings to see who is currently the team admin.

Note: A team in Echometer must always have at least one team admin. You can name as many people as you want as team admin.