What Feelings Wheels Can Tell Us About Group Dynamics
There are numerous examples of “Feelings Wheels,” one of which is the Emotional Word Wheel, created by Geoffrey Roberts, as shown below. This particular version first came to my attention via some volunteering that I did as a crisis counselor. Not only are visual representations such as this a powerful vehicle for having conversations with people in crisis, they can also serve as a springboard for other types or conversations. In this blog post, let’s explore a couple of potential applications of this visual technique.
Note: For the sake of simplicity, I will use the term Feelings Wheel for the remainder of this blog post, referencing the illustration. There are numerous other examples of visual metaphors for exploring feelings and emotions, such as Dr. Gloria Willcox’s Feelings Wheel, and Dr. Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions.
Outside In Retrospective
One of my favorite questions to ask near the beginning of a Sprint Retrospective is “If we had to chose one word to describe the Sprint that just ended, what would it be?” The most common way to facilitate using this question is to leave it completely up to the individual to silently think of a word, and then to share it with the rest of the group.
Let’s say we use the Feelings Wheel to make this a richer conversation, where it might go something like this:
- Before the retrospective, the facilitator picks at least a few words from each of the various color-coded bands on the outer ring of the Feelings Wheel.
- The facilitator displays the pre-selected set of words, and opens with a statement something like: “Reflecting on what you experienced during the Sprint, please silently write down one word from the following list that best captures the Sprint’s essence.”
- After team members reveal their chosen words (which optionally can be anonymous), the facilitator invites team members to share their thoughts about each of the words that were chosen.
- Next, the facilitator reveals the words from the middle band of the Feelings Wheel which correspond with those chosen by team members previously, and invites the team to continue the conversation based on this additional set of words.
- Finally, the facilitator reveals the words from the inner band of the Feelings Wheel which correspond with those chosen by team members previously, and that last set of words serves as an invitation to further conversation.
For example, the above conversation could serve as a precursor to a technique such as Drop Add Keep Improve (DAKI), which I described in the middle section of my 30-Minute Retrospective blog post.
Setting the Stage for (or Improving) a Team Working Agreement
It is important to acknowledge the role that emotions may play in the multitude of interactions that occur in a team context. And even more importantly, it is vital that team members feel empowered to speak openly with their colleagues, in a constructive fashion that is consistent with psychological safety.
Note: For an easy-to-digest summary of what psychological safety looks like in a team context, see the High Performance via Psychological Safety Work Sheet, by Joshua Kerievsky, Heidi Helfand, and Ashley Johnson, as well as the Psychological Safety Fact Sheet by Excella.
Let’s say that a team is using a technique such as the Team Canvas to create or modify a Team Working Agreement. During such a conversation, the facilitator could employ the Feelings Wheel something like this:
- Now that we’re talking about our Values (the third quadrant of the Team Canvas), let’s use the Feelings Wheel to help us articulate what we aspire to as a team, and also what needs to happen to trigger a team conversation if/when something occurs which goes against those Values?
- Moving into the fourth quadrant of the Team Canvas, Norms/Activities, what proactive steps can we think of to make sure that everybody on the team feels heard, which helps reinforce the Values that we just discussed?
Conclusion
I’ve mentioned a couple of examples of ways in which we can use a Feelings Wheel to explore the ways in which we interact in a group setting. Many other potential applications come to mind which I have not explored here, such as using this sort of construct in a mentoring setting, where one person is working closely with another to help them grow their skills or improve in less tangible ways, or as an exploratory activity during a more in-depth team conversation such as what might occur during a set of Team Launch activities, which Paul Boos describes on the Excella Insights blog.
