squad-health-check
Squad Health Check model – visualizing what to improve
What is a squad health check model?
A lot of companies experiment with ways of measuring and visualizing how their teams are doing. They’re usually called “maturity models”, and involve some sort of progression through different levels.
The intent of these types of models is usually benign – for example managers or coaches in larger organizations who want to get a sense of where they should focus their improvement efforts, spot systemic problems, and help teams become more self-aware so they can focus their improvement efforts too.
We prefer to use other terms like “health check model”, because “maturity” sounds a bit… well…. patronizing. Plus, most of our models don’t involve progressing through different levels, and the primary audience is the team itself rather than management.
Organizational improvement work is very much a guessing game (how do you know what needs to be improved, and how will you know if it’s improving?). A systemic approach with clear visualization can reduce some of the guessiness.