how to run a team health check

Team Health Check

A Team Health Check is a powerful tool that enables a team to self-assess their teamwork or readiness for change. It is quick to run, low cost and can help identify the key issues that need to be addressed in the team. The main benefits of a Team Health Check are that it:

• provides a quantitative and qualitative self-assessment of team performance
• maximises the benefit of any team building activities by focusing them on the most important issues
• establishes a benchmark against which the team can assess its future progress in teamwork
• serves as a powerful communication tool, enabling issues to be raised that team members don't normally feel able to raise, and building awareness in the team of other member's views
• is cost-effective for even the busiest or most geographically-spread team (it can be run quickly and cheaply over the internet, taking between 10 and 30 minutes for each person, at a time of their own choosing)

There are three kinds of Team Health Check:

• Internet questionnaire
  This is by far the quickest, cheapest and most convenient Team Health Check. It only takes a few minutes to set up and, for a team of 20 people, costs less than £50. View an example report. One person sets up the project at the beginning, sends all the team members a link, and presses a few buttons to produce the report at the end. Team members click on the link and complete the questionnaire, which typically takes between 10 and 30 minutes to complete. When the report has been produced, it serves as a discussion document for the team to collectively review the findings - which can stimulate some very productive and powerful discussion.
• Face-to-face interview
  This is a much more expensive option - requiring a consultant to undertake individual interviews that typically last between 60 to 90 minutes. However, it can be of great value when there are particularly difficult or complex issues in the team, or the team is very senior, or confidentiality needs to be 100% guaranteed. The process is similar to the internet questionnaire but based on individual interviews with the consultant. The report, which is written by the consultant, summarises the team issues and anonymity of contributors is guaranteed. The report is usually fed back to the team in the form of a presentation by our consultant.
• Hybrid/360
  This type of Team Health Check combines both techniques, e.g., interviewing members of the team and getting internet feedback from people outside the team (peers, senior managers, staff, customers, etc.). The two sets of results can then be compared to see how closely the team's view of itself is aligned with the views of people outside the team.

If you would like to undertake an internet-based Team Health Check, you can administer the process yourself. Please follow the instructions below. If you would like us to conduct a Team Health Check for you, as a consultancy or hybrid exercise, please contact us.

How to run an internet-based Team Health Check

Running a Team Health Check involves setting up and using an administration account at our corporate service site. It is a quick and easy process, and the steps to follow are:

1. Register at: https://www.metarasa.biz/member/register/.
2. Login at https://www.metarasa.biz/member/login/
3. Click on "control panel" at the top of your screen.
4. Click on "purchase more credit" to add credit to your account (you can find details of pricing at http://www.metarasa.biz/publicarea/articles/pricing/ ).
5. Return to your control panel, and follow the steps on the right side of the screen, i.e.:
   • Enter the team name in step 1.
   • Select THC from the drop down menu.
   • Press the Create button.
6. On the next screen, enter the number of people you want to complete the questionnaire.
7. Press "Create Survey"
8. On the next screen, copy the link and paste it into an email to send to your team members.
9. You can monitor who has completed the questionnaire via your control panel by clicking on "Responses".
10. When everyone has finished, click on "Close" to close the project.
11. Click on "Report" to produce the report, which will be available to you only via a link that the system gives you.
12. Either print the report, or click on "Make the report available to others" and send the report link to team members via email.