Agile Teams: Regularly check your team’s emotional pulse

A team that is emotionally connected, is happy and engaged and remains that way is key to the agile process; especially when there is pressure in completing sprints at regular intervals. Often it is the small things that can lead to a decrease in team morale and impact productivity. Individual 1–1 meeting is a good way to engage an individual; however, for a team, measuring an overall team emotional pulse using an ‘emotional barometer’ can be an effective way to discuss and address any issues impacting the team as a whole.

One simple way to do this is to make this measurement part of the sprint retrospective. Ask one question — How do you feel about the overall sprint execution? Measure the answers in a graphical format (see example below) and then start the discussion. This will allow the team members to raise any issues that have made them feel sad or mention the things that have made them happy.

The team members can then collectively discuss the issue and take action to address them. Repeat this cycle and you will have a self-organizing, emotionally intelligent team ensuring a great team culture.