Employee pulse / 1:1 prep
A quick, honest check-in between the longer engagement surveys.
Worth a look
- Build a tower, build a teamTom Wujec, TEDThe marshmallow challenge: why kindergartners beat business-school graduates at building something together. (opens in a new tab)
- Forget the pecking order at workMargaret Heffernan, TEDThe superchicken experiment, and why a team of stars loses to a team that helps each other. (opens in a new tab)
- How Google builds the perfect teamInsider TechCharles Duhigg on what Google found when it studied its own teams: who's on the team mattered less than how they treat each other. (opens in a new tab)
- How to turn a group of strangers into a teamAmy Edmondson, TEDHow the Chilean mine rescue worked with people who had never worked together, and what any new project team can borrow from it. (opens in a new tab)
- How to build a company where the best ideas winRay Dalio, TEDRadical transparency at Bridgewater: recorded meetings and everyone rating everyone's thinking in real time. Fascinating whether or not you'd want it. (opens in a new tab)
More (2)
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick LencioniPatrick LencioniThe author walks through his pyramid, from no trust to nobody owning results. You'll know which layer your team is stuck on. (opens in a new tab)
- Postmortem Culture: Learning from FailureGoogle SRE bookHow Google writes up what went wrong without hunting for someone to blame, so people tell the truth next time. (opens in a new tab)
The conviction read: trend the conviction, not just the average. Falling certainty is an early warning before the score drops.
What's in the template
- I've felt motivated at work lately. puck
- My workload is manageable right now. puck
- I get useful feedback on my work. puck
- I can see how my work matters. puck
- I feel supported by my manager. puck
- I can picture a future for myself here. puck
Questions about this template
How often should I send it?
Often enough to see change between the longer engagement surveys, such as monthly or after a busy stretch. Duplicate your copy for each round so each keeps its own results, and watch for certainty falling on 'workload is manageable'.
What if 'I feel supported by my manager' lands low?
Do not try to work out who answered that way; the results show no names. Share the result with the team, ask what better support would look like, pick one change, and send the pulse again later to see if it moved.