Cultivating Team Health: A PETALS Approach

Greetings & Salutations!

As an Engineering Manager, I recognise the importance of closely monitoring our Team Health. This ensures we catch any issues early and address them within the team promptly.

To help me monitor team health, I took some time to investigate existing solutions which are:

1. Effective
2. Proven
3. Seamless
4. Low-investment for participants
5. Anonymous
6. Actionable
7. Repeatable

From this, I came across the PETALS Framework, created by Si Jobling.

Image credit: https://sijobling.com/petals/

Si Jobling is an experienced Tech Leader, and leveraging his knowledge made this framework a compelling option for us at the squad/team level. This framework stood out as a compelling option for enhancing team health at the squad/team level. I want to share this with you because I believe it can significantly benefit your teams by promoting continuous improvement and fostering a healthier, more productive work environment.

• Simple framework to help Engineering Teams become more aware of their overall health.
• Data-informed for continuous improvement and enhancing team health.
• Fuel for conversations amongst the team in Retrospectives and other team ceremonies.

PETALS represents key areas of Team Health measurement:

• Productivity
• Enjoyment
• Teamwork
• Autonomy*
• Learning
• Serenity - Originally “Stress”, but we felt a high score for “Serenity” would indicate low “Stress”.

*Not implemented, 5 core metrics used.

These measurements help us identify and address real problems, driving improvement and fostering a healthier work environment.

Image credit: https://sijobling.com/petals/

At Workhuman, we deployed PETALS with a blend of automation and manual effort, using a fortnightly cycle. Here’s how:

1. Microsoft Forms - Creation of the lightweight PETALS survey.
2. Microsoft Excel - Persistence of the survey results, which is automatically populated through the integration with the Microsoft Forms.
3. Slack - Automated delivery of the PETALS Survey on a once-per-sprint/fortnightly cycle
4. Miro/LucidSpark - Presentation of latest results, used alongside our Retrospective sessions to fuel conversation and discuss opportunities for improvement at the squad/team level.
5. Confluence - Documentation of results for posterity, enabling a single view of trends and ongoing PETALS survey results.

Image credit: https://sijobling.com/petals/

1. Gather Feedback

Slack Workflow in place to deliver PETALS survey link (Microsoft Form) every 2 weeks (end of Sprint).

2. Visualise Feedback

Gather results from latest PETALS survey responses, ahead of team Retrospective.

3. Share, Discuss, Improve, Repeat

- Share the latest results appropriately – e.g. in Team Retrospectives

- Make data-informed decisions to identify gaps and focus areas

- Agree on tangible actions to improve lower-scoring areas

- Repeat at the end of next sprint (e.g. 2 weeks), aiming for continuous improvement and celebrating success!

Image credit: https://sijobling.com/blog/pop-petals/

The PETALS Framework offers a focused, localised view of Team Health. While external factors and emotional responses can influence feedback, PETALS helps shine a light on problematic areas within the team. It’s not a silver bullet, but it provides a pragmatic approach to improving team health.

Remember, striving for improvement rather than perfection is key to managing expectations and fostering a positive, healthy team environment.

Together, let’s cultivate a thriving engineering team, one step at a time.

Take action on what can be improved- nobody wants their flower to die, or burn entirely!

You must be comfortable with variable results - the flower will die at times, and the flower will bloom again!

The aim is to take action to move towards a blooming, green flower representing Team Health.