A couple of weeks ago, I did a feature on how teams are sinking into the weeds. In that post, I talked about the nature of effective team conversations and the dimensions on which those conversations start to lose value. Now, I’ve turned that post into a handy-dandy quiz you can use to assess just how much of a “Deep Weeds” problem you have on your team.
Behold, the 3COze Weed-o-Meter!
No, the Weed-o-Meter won’t tell you which Hogwarts house your team most resembles (although some days you might suspect it’s Slytherin) or which Disney villain your boss takes after. But it will start an interesting conversation about how you spend your time together and where you might need a bit of a course correction.
It’s just the first of some fun tools we’ll be sharing to help you engage in what can be uncomfortable conversations about team effectiveness.
Score your team from 1 (good) to 4 (argh) on each of the five dimensions:
- Time horizon (now versus later)
- Content (how versus what)
- Level of processing (information versus insight)
- Materiality (trivial versus important)
- Accountability (individual versus collective)
Then add it all up and see just how far in the weeds your team really is.
Download the tool here. Fill it out yourself. Compare notes with a teammate over a cup of coffee. Take copies to your next team meeting.
Then share your stories (names changed to protect the guilty) in the comments below.
And one more thing…
In a classic TOH-MAY-TOH versus TOH-MAH-TOH battle, Craig and I are still debating whether it’s the WEED-OH-MEE-TER or the WEED-OM-ETTER. You can add your answer to your stories in the comments and we’ll declare the official pronunciation!
Further Reading
Busy is a Self-Inflicted Wound