The world of agility is a very human universe; so what better way than a good monitoring of team health? That’s why we make a Mood Board. Now, we will mainly decode the practice hidden behind this enticing name.
Mood Board Concept
We start by making small avatars for each member of the team. Take the ones you have, otherwise feel free to take advantage of the model below to inspire you.
Then we prepare a very simple board which proposes 5 lines numbered from 1 to 5 on which we will be able to place the avatar of each member of the team. Here is an example of a simple board:
Each member of the team will put his avatar to indicate his mood of the day. If some developers are uncomfortable with this concept, don’t hesitate to propose anonymous avatars.
The 5 represents the best mood and the 1 represents the total depression; the colors of the numbers are there to remind him.
Team members will be able to move their avatar from one line to another when they want. The ideal is to update the board to reflect the mood of the team in real time.
Results analysis
The purpose of this board is to exploit the results to be in a concept of constant reflection (a concept that can be found in Crystal Clear which serves as a permanent retrospective).
The Mood board is the ideal tool to make continuous improvement that we find in the Kaizen philosophy very much appreciated in the world of agility.
We will make a follow-up board of results that will be updated every morning by noting the average of all the notes. Here is an example of representation:
We can overlay the months by changing colors and by writting the name of the month that corresponds to each line. This simple way of comparing allows you to see the team’s trends.
If the motivation is continuously decreasing, the Scrum Master (or serving leader) will try to analyze the reasons for the decrease of motivation and will do what is necessary.
Conclusion
This practice is simple to set up, some reminders of the existence of the board will be essential but it will help you keep a constant eye on the motivation of the team.
Never forget that human are at the center of our companies and their well being is essential; so it’s important to monitor their health and don’t wait to act.
1 Trackback / Pingback