Team values workshop
There are several exercises you can find, to identify team values. These can range from short sessions to full day long workshops. It’s best to err on the side of starting with a short session and then refining your understanding of team values over time. Here’s an short, one-hour exercise to discover team values.
Begin by using sticky notes to list a set of core values on a collaborative whiteboard. James Clear provides a list of 57 core values as a starting point. You can add your company values to this list if you wish to attempt overlapping with them. This is also where you can add values that have emerged from your own introspection, i.e., reflecting on the values that drive this shift to asynchronous work.
Ask your team mates to read the values in silence and identify the ones that they hold most dear, by “dot-voting” on them. Limit them to a maximum of five votes each.
Once the team has identified the initial set of values, move these to a new canvas. Now ask team members to describe the values they voted for. Encourage them to add sticky notes around each value to describe why they find it important and how one may behave in line with that value.
Now that you have descriptions and associated behaviours for each value, run a second voting session. This time, encourage team members to read the descriptions and associated behaviours and identify the top three values that resonate with them.
After the voting session completes, you should have a list of your team’s top three (or top-five values). Time to celebrate!
As a follow up, codify the values on your team handbook and add the descriptions and behaviours you came up with during the workshop. Encourage your team to revisit this page on your handbook and to enhance it by adding examples of behaviour that are in line with the values. You must also question every few months, how well these values are serving your team.
To help you discover team values, use the Mural template (see below) that you can use to run the exercise in your team. You can reuse the design of this template even if your team uses another whiteboarding tool.