Measuring Team Health

Beyond measuring business results (Outcome) and delivery efficiency (Output), it is critical to assess the Health of the team.

This third category of metrics focuses on the well-being, morale, collaboration and long-term sustainability of the team.

A team can deliver short-term results while accumulating internal problems that will eventually impact its performance and member retention.

Measuring team health helps to identify these underlying issues, give the team a voice in its processes and dynamics, and guide coach interventions to ensure a positive and sustainable work environment.

Retrospective as a Tool for Health

Regular retrospectives (such as those held at the end of each Sprint in Scrum) are an intrinsic and valuable tool for measuring and improving team health.

By providing a dedicated space for the team to reflect on their processes, collaboration, and overall well-being during the last work cycle, retrospectives allow you to identify friction, celebrate successes, and agree on improvements.

They are an ongoing way to take the pulse of the team and foster its capacity for self-correction and improvement, directly addressing aspects that impact its health.

The Team Health Monitor

The Team Health Monitor (inspired by Atlassian's tool) is a structured workshop designed to assess the health of the team on a more in-depth and periodic basis (e.g., quarterly).

Typically, the team (sometimes divided into groups) assesses a predefined list of attributes of a healthy team (e.g., collaboration, value delivery, learning, fun) using a simple scale (such as Red/Amber/Green).

The results, especially discrepancies, are then discussed to reach consensus.

Finally, the team chooses one or two priority attributes to improve and defines concrete actions.

This exercise provides a holistic view of health, complements retrospectives focused on the short term, helps managers understand the team's situation and allows the coach to show the impact of their interventions over time.

It is recommended to keep the scale simple and focused on processes, not purely on emotions.

Importance of Psychological Safety in Measurement

For any measurement of team health (whether through retrospectives or the Health Monitor) to be useful, an environment of psychological safety is absolutely essential.

Team members must feel safe to express their opinions honestly, point out problems, and admit weaknesses without fear of reprisal, blame, or judgment.

If the results of these measurements are used to negatively evaluate the team or individuals,