What is the Team Mood Thermometer?
The Team Mood Thermometer is a simple activity to visualize how the individuals in the team are feeling, and the overall team happiness levels. It helps team members acknowledge each other’s mood before working together.
So, if it’s been a week of ups and downs and you’re not sure how the team are feeling, use the Team Mood Thermometer at the start of your meeting to help you assess the collective mood. With the results you can decide to go ahead with the meeting or adjust the agenda to tackle any issues that need addressing.
How to use the Team Mood exercise
- You can either use this template as a standalone board, or add it as an icebreaker activity to an existing meeting board.
- Write your question at the top of the thermometer e.g. “How have you felt this week?” and explain the exercise to the team.
- Ask the team to take a mood token and place it on the mood thermometer.
- People can add an optional accompanying sticky note if they want to write anything.
- Depending on how deeply you want to dig into the results, you can either ask the team question or ask the team to discuss the results together. You could even decide to use the findings in a retrospective, asking questions like: “How can we make sure we don’t have the same things happen next week?”
Do’s and Don’ts of Team Mood Checks
A mood check should be a lightweight exercise. It is crucial to introduce the topic of team health checks carefully, taking the time to explain why you would like to try one with the team. Otherwise team members could be suspicious of the exercise. Some key tips:
- Do – explain why. Your intention is to improve the team’s work environment, not to manage individuals.
- Do – make it optional but explain why it helps.
- Do – keep the information within the team – do not share it with anyone else.
- Don’t – use a mood check as a substitute for having frank conversations.
