Facilitate team well-being by creating a safe space for open dialogue, setting clear expectations, and implementing team rituals. Focus on support, not solutions, and guide discussions with specific, actionable objectives and respectful interaction
Now that you've completed your first Quan retro session, you might be wondering what to do with all the new information you've gathered about your team's well-being.
Some managers feel overwhelmed by this and see it as a new burden on top of their day-to-day responsibilities. So, let me share how you can support your team's well-being without overburdening yourself.
Shift Your Mindset: From Fixer to Facilitator
First, shift your mindset from fixer to facilitator. Instead of solving everyone's problems or trying to manage personal issues, focus on creating a safe space for open dialogue.
Your role as a manager is to provide a supportive environment where your team feels comfortable sharing concerns and exploring ideas.
You can create safe space by setting ground rules for respectful interactions and setting clear objectives with measurable results.
Sharing explicit expectations allows people to align to common values while allowing for individual style and needs.
Ambiguity and lack of input are key factors in burnout, so establishing clear boundaries and expectations helps diminish that negative outcome.
Avoid general statements like ‘we need to increase productivity,' and ‘it's time for us to buckle down and work harder’. They sound encouraging but can add stress due to their vagueness.
Instead, distill expectations into specific targets like 'increase customer contacts to 150/week' or 'grow existing client revenue by 2% over this quarter.'
This extra level of detail provides clarity and helps your team suggest ideas and approaches to accomplish the objective.
Being specific about how people interact also reduces anxiety related to different interpretations on how to behave in the team setting.
Starting meetings late, allowing open laptops, or having cameras off can all lead to discomfort, distraction, and disengagement.
Instead of ‘laying down the law’ with your own list of expectations, engage the team in a collaborative discussion where different ideas are floated and discussed before agreeing on the ground rules together.
Implement One Team Ritual
From your baseline of ground rules you can increase your team engagement one step at a time by adding new team rituals.
As with anything complex, start simple and pick just one new ritual to get moving.
Think of a ritual as an invitation to dinner or to an outing with your friends. You set up the situation and everybody brings their own energy, ideas, and personal views to the party.
You don’t have to make up rituals on your own, Quan provides science-backed recommendations your team can implement for all kinds of issues you face.
Select from one of the prompted ideas or browse the Quan library to find one, or if nothing resonates feel free to invent one as a team.
In some cases, the ritual will be supportive of a low scoring area without addressing the concern directly.
For example, if your team scores low on sleep, you don’t have to become a sleep coach or dig into personal behaviors at bedtime!
Find a ritual that clarifies boundaries and ground rules around work behavior that have a direct impact on sleep. A new team rule like ‘no work emails after standard working hours,’ can have a big impact on a healthier work-life balance.
Being clear about the norms and expectations for email response times can take the stress out of a self-imposed ‘serve the team at all costs' work ethic that sounds good in principle but leads to unhealthy overwork at odd hours.
Explicit boundary agreements are essential for team well-being because they put more control in each person’s hands to structure their time and take restorative breaks.
Support, Don't Solve
In summary, your role as a manager is to support, not solve. To impact your team well-being, you're not expected to solve every problem or provide advice on personal issues.
Instead, create openings, be inviting, and be there to listen.
To get your team comfortable sharing, use phrases like, 'Thank you for sharing that,' or 'Is there anything more you want to share about that?'
After you’ve heard from those who want to share about their current state, you can shift to a team discussion about common themes or concerns how to address them.
Again, questions, not answers, are the best facilitation tactic. Use a ‘shifting gears’ question like, ‘What patterns have you noticed today?’ or ‘What stands out for you after hearing everyone share?’ or “Does anyone have an idea about how to address this?”
If someone shares something serious, acknowledge what they’ve said and ask them, 'Do you need support with that, or do you have what you need to work through it?'
If someone shares they are having a difficult time, offer understanding and refer them to HR or external resources if it seems they need support for a serious personal issue.
If things get off track or too personal, you can redirect the conversation back to a safer level by suggesting you discuss further one-on-one and then invite someone else to answer the original question.
This helps you move through an awkward silence and reiterates that team discussions are for empathy and understanding, but not a place for therapy.
Your role is to open the door for well-being conversations and encourage your team to walk through it on their own."
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