Some sample questions to articulate and understand the current state in a team or group are shown below
- Choose one or two of the images that represent how you feel about things at this time. These may be
similar images or quite different ones as your feelings change from hour to hour!
- Describe why you chose this particular set of images and the feelings and reactions they caused.
- Explore when you experience these feelings at work or in relation to the team and ask yourself what the root cause of those feelings is.
- For example, if you chose the image of the circus team successfully demonstrating their individual skills, ask yourself when you experience the pleasure and rewards of demonstrating your own, specialist competence in your working team.
If you chose the image of the stationary car in a traffic jam, explore when you feel the frustration of having your progress delayed: are you waiting for permission, decisions, resources...?
- In the team, identify patterns. Are there common themes coming from different people? Does this highlight any particular problems or issues to be addressed?
Which of these are priorities? Is there a commitment in the team to doing something about them?
- Are there enough positive feelings to outweigh the negative ones?
If not, how could the team work to create more positive feedback and team satisfaction/celebration?
