MY BEST ADVICE FOR BOOSTING YOUR ENERGY AND FUN LEVELS AT WORK

Feeling connected to my coworkers is more likely to boost my energy and fun at work than any other factor. And we know a tight team is more creative and gets better results.

DOES TEAM CONNECTION MAKE A SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE IN HOW YOU ENJOY WORK?

Well my team found a killer, very easy way to make our team more emotionally connected.

WE ANSWER THESE THREE QUESTIONS EACH WEEK IN A TEAM MEETING

IF YOU COULD MAGICALLY CHANGE SOMETHING, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

This question essentially says, “Even if it’s an impossible thing to change, just share what you wish was different.”

Here’s why we’ve found that valuable:

It gives everyone a chance to voice challenges and issues without having a good solution.

We can put pressure on ourselves to hide what’s difficult about our job. We don’t want to be complainers. But this question alleviates some of that pressure.

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​It illuminates the struggles.​
​Sometimes it’s a piece of technology that isn’t performing the way they want. Sometimes it’s a personal weakness. Sometimes it’s a project that comes with their role that they do NOT enjoy.

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This is a great time to help out a friend.

You or another teammate might have had a similar issue that they found a solution for.

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It can help us decide where to direct additional resources to relieve burdens.

If your team (and manager) hear these frustrations, they might decide to finally upgrade that software you all hate.

WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU’VE FAILED AT THIS WEEK?

We like this question because:

• Analyzing and agonizing over failure is isolating. Sharing our failures is connecting and freeing.
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• You learn about your coworkers’ perceptions of failure.
  ​You see what they want from themselves, what they believe the expectations of their job to be, etc. ​
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• Sharing puts our failures through a filter. ​
  Wait, was that really a failure? Or was it just a tough situation?​
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WHAT’S SOMETHING YOU’RE PROUD OF FROM THIS WEEK?

This question is valuable because:

• It’s a great time to learn from one another.
  ​The answer to this question often goes, “There was this difficult thing I didn’t know how to do, but I figured it out. Here’s how...”
  And that “how” is often a lesson we all benefit from hearing. ​
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• You learn about your coworkers’ perception of success.
  ​It builds connection when you understand what people believe they should be proud of. ​
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• You can validate success.
  ​This is another very important piece of relationship building. ​
  

Ted Lasso knows that a tight-knit team will perform the best. And these questions make it much easier to understand how members of your team are doing, and it gives you an opportunity to share what’s going on with you. Ask your team if you can start discussing these questions, your manager will probably be pumped about it.