A healthy team is like a vigorous garden: it thrives in good conditions, and it can weather adverse conditions. Nourish your team regularly. Here are a few ideas that will help keep your team healthy.
Warmth
Your human team is hard wired to respond positively to warm communications. Research supports the idea that treating each other like people is what really matters: it leads to better employee engagement. Practice listening, caring, helping, smiling, eye contact and general friendliness, and encourage all these in your team. Think of the sun that warms the ground and invites seeds to sprout.
Light
Encourage individuals on your team to shed light on the contributions each of them makes. Retrospectives are a great time for this recognition, and there are many resources that can help you get started. Here’s one based on 360-degree feedback. It really can be as simple as asking each person to write one highlight of the past Sprint on a card, based on another team member’s contribution, and putting all the cards up on the wall for discussion.
Compost
Yes, I went there. The flip side of shedding light on the successes of the team is shedding light on the problems. Most people don’t want to go there, but you need to do it. In Scrum, introspection is a regular part of the team’s routine. With practice, the team becomes better at opening up and problem solving together. Think of the rose that thrives when a good compost is mixed in with the soil. All the decaying organic matter feeds the new growth.
Attention
The idea is to tend your team as you would tend a garden. Plants and people thrive when provided good conditions for growth. Check in regularly. Remove weeds. Water as needed. Be aware of individual traits.