Management 3.0 Practitioner — Part 4: Tracking Team Happiness with Niko-Niko Calendar

The pandemic context forced a lot of teams to transition into remote work, which caused many people a feeling of isolation towards their group. Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield conducted an investigation with 1153 employees, 52% of which were working remotely, and when comparing results between those onsite vs remote workers they discovered that this second group had suffered more of day-to-day team-related pains: lack of empathy, changes without previous notice, among others.

During these remote working times, I worked with a software development team, where there was a discussion about the need for a space meant for understanding how the team was feeling. There was a good mood according to everyone, but some of them suggested that we should still have a checkpoint in case someone had a bad day, which was very possible due to the lockdown. I saw that there was a good impact on the team when we used visual tools, so besides having a meeting to talk about this, I thought of using Niko-Niko Calendar (https://management30.com/practice/niko-niko-calendar/).

What is this practice about? We create a visual calendar of working days available for the team (it may be on a physical or virtual board), where we list their names. At the end of each day, every team member has to add an image to indicate how they felt on this date (good, regular, bad). Besides, it is important to provide a section for each one to explain their choice (whether it is written on the calendar or in a conversation with the team).

For my team, we decided to have a Niko-Niko Calendar in Miro, and at the end of each working day, we had a meeting in which everyone shared why they chose a specific mood for that date. Then, at the end of each month, we had a larger conversation about how we felt in general during that time, based on what we could see on the Niko-Niko. The result was this:

As a facilitator, I learned that many times we think the team is okay, and we are not aware of a problem because of not having a specific place for them to share their feelings. I think the team learned the same thing, but also the value of being able to express themselves and sharing something that makes them uncomfortable, which is why they decided to keep using this tool.

For my next experiment, I wouldn’t change the dynamic itself (maybe provide more mood options), but rather try this same practice with another team, so I can have other experiences with it.

I recommend that, if you decide to use Niko-Niko Calendar, you also create a daily or weekly session to meet with the whole team, so everyone can share more about the mood they chose and we can have a deeper understanding of what is going on.

If you’re part of a team, especially one that is going through remote working, you must use tools that help visualize each member’s mood and do not settle with your perception.