Have you ever conducted an elaborate team engagement survey and found some numbers pointing to the team’s health but lacked a good insight into the real issues?
Have you been left only with data points but no better understanding of the actual emotions of the team?
Do you struggle to use the data gathered to know the mood of your team?
Have you bored the life out of your team conducting exhaustive exercises to get their pulse?
If the answer of any of the above is a yes, then you should look no further than the Niko-Niko calendar to help you out, and that too in an easy, non-exhaustive, fun-filled way.
We will attempt to answer the below questions and more in this blog based on our experience as an agile strategy consulting company:
Why is team health important?
What is a Niko Niko Calendar?
Examples of Niko Niko Calendar
How to use a Niko Niko Calendar?
Can we use a Niko Niko Calendar Template?
Why is the team’s health so important?
A team’s health is a very crucial factor to consider when striving to build high performing teams. Healthy teams often deliver better products and services – and to be clear, we are talking about mental health here. A healthy team helps the management uncover issues that may cause needless bottlenecks and inefficiency easily. It is crucial to understand the undercurrents in the team and to measure its health, especially in organizations where psychological safety is less emphasized.
Healthy teams are an important asset in the modern creative economy, where the siloed, gated work culture and processes have been replaced by the collaboration, ideation and iteration led ways of working. We have delivered context-driven psychological safety workshops across organizations in very different domains and have been pleasantly surprised by the power and impact of awareness and empathy around the topic and how well-received the topic is across various levels. This blog focuses on one of the ways of understanding the mood of the team members periodically.
What is a Niko-Niko Calendar?
So, what is a Niko Niko calendar exactly?
Niko Niko calendar, invented by the Japanese (Niki Niko loosely translated to smile), are tools used to track the happiness index of a team. Essentially this tool captures the mood of the team members – as in if they are glad, mad, sad, frustrated, happy, or gloomy. Thus capturing the team members’ emotions which helps us to track, visualize, and evaluate their feelings over time.
While there are many other ways of measuring happiness quotient, the uniqueness of the Niko Niko calendar is that it introduces a fun element to the process. This calendar is usually pasted on a wall, where it is visible and accessible to the entire team. Every member of the team is expected to post his/her emotion of the day on the wall, by way of a smiley or a representative color. This kind of information radiator brings transparency and openness across the team. Management can then use such an index to understand and analyze indicators, patterns, and trends of emotions displayed. Which enables them to plan and act proactively towards improving the emotional well-being of the team.
Best Examples or Templates For Agile Niko Niko Calendar
Niko Niko calendar can be used in both online and offline modes. One can print the template from https://management30.com/practice/niko-niko-calendar/. This printed version should be pasted on the wall. When the team is physically present in the office the above printed version could be used.
niko-niko calendar example
When the team is distributed or in a hybrid working model Niko Niko calendar online template from https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVKEaMOoY=/ is a great way to start. Apart from the ones mentioned above, there are many Niko Niko calendars online for free.
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