A team member that feels comfortable will speak his mind, leading to big advantages: the cause of a certain delay being found, the reason why a person was underperforming at one time,…
We often underestimate the value of these advantages. It doesn’t have to be hard to make people feel a bit more at home.
For example: if you’re having a retrospective, try asking everybody about a non-forgettable happening during the iteration that was NOT work-related. This helps people opening up. They might even tell you that they underperformed last Friday because their child was sick and they were worried.
You don’t have to be a boss or team manager to stimulate this kind of work environment. Each team member can contribute (and does so all the time) in how their colleagues feel at work.
A work environment where you feel at home ensure you come to work with smile.
Next project you start, as a team, try answering the following question:
“What feeling should our work environment represent and how does it look like?”
Try keeping that in mind and actively put effort in achieving this. I’m looking forward to your responses to see how this works for you.