In healthy software teams, people feel psychologically safe to solve problems and contribute, Brittany Woods said in her talk at QCon London. She presented how they do team health checks and the benefits that it has brought them.

The biggest indicator that a team is healthy is the psychological safety of those within the team, Woods said. If not every member is feeling safe within the team to contribute or voice their opinions, it’s not possible for the team to be healthy, she added.

Woods mentioned that this is particularly important in teams where there are mixed skill sets or varied experience levels. In both cases, there is an unwritten power dynamic, so ensuring your team remains a healthy and collaborative team where all members feel safe to solve problems and contribute is very important.

Team health checks are a great way to check in with your software team and get a pulse on how things are going from their perspective, Woods argued:

In my current role, we collaborate with our agile coaches for these health checks, aiming to conduct them once a quarter.

Woods mentioned that during the health checks, the team has the opportunity to share thoughts on potential improvements and ideas to address any identified issues. Their agile coaches facilitate these sessions, making them enjoyable and engaging for everyone.

These sessions typically last about two hours, and they prefer an in-person gathering, Woods noted. If a remote session is necessary, they strive to ensure that all team members participate remotely for a consistent experience.

A typical format would include the following:

Team effectiveness is very influenced by the overall health of a team, Woods said. From the team environment to quality measures and metrics, team health can either hinder your team’s ability to deliver on their commitments – software or otherwise – or help it, she concluded.

InfoQ interviewed Brittany Woods about doing team health checks.

InfoQ: How does the format of your team health checks look?

Brittany Woods: In our most recent session, we did the following:

These activities might appear differently depending on what is valuable for your team at that particular time.

InfoQ: What have you discovered about team effectiveness?

Woods: I’ve realized that to drive effectiveness, it’s crucial to create safe and inclusive environments where there is room to learn, share, and grow.

When every team member has the opportunity to learn, share, and grow, your team, in my view, achieves peak effectiveness and is in a mindset to deliver their best quality work in the optimal environment for them. At that point, the real challenge lies in continuously ensuring that the team remains in that space.

As leaders, we have to constantly be engaged in building a safe and collaborative environment for our teams.

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