Happiness index

…anytime for a squad or tribe chipping away at a collective endeavor, and especially during retrospective gatherings and scrumming the scrum.

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Increase the level of joy in day to day work, while speeding up.

On a scale of 1–5,

1. How happy are you with your work?
   • What feels best right now?
   • What feels worst right now?
2. How happy are you with your company?
   • What feels best right now?
   • What feels worst right now?
3. What would need to happen to increase your happiness index?

Keep track of a moving average over the past few weeks or so. Whenever the average changes significantly, talk about why, and what you can do to make everybody happier.

The happiness index is more important than any financial metric, not only because it visualizes the aspect that matters most to you, but also because it is a leading indicator, which makes you agile. Most financial metrics are lagging indicators, making it hard to react to change in time.

Therefore:

As a group, pick the top item that will increase the happiness by one or more points on a scale of one to five and implement it by moving it to the accelerator list.

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For tough issues, consider the a3 solver.

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Morale Index

Source: http://www.christiaanverwijs.nl/post/2012/07/24/Agile-Teams-Dont-use-happiness-metrics-measure-Team-Morale.aspx

• I am enthusiastic about the work that I do for my team
• I find the work that I do for my team of meaning and purpose
• I am proud of the work that I do for my team
• To me, the work that I do for my team is challenging
• In my team, I feel bursting with energy
• In my team, I feel fit and strong
• In my team, I quickly recover from setbacks
• In my team, I can keep going for a long time

Teams with High Morale usually have the following traits:

• Members are willing to help each other out, no matter the nature of the task;
• Members are proud of their team (and usually tell the outside world) and the work they do;
• Members will go the extra mile individually or for the team, even if it means staying late to finish the sprint;
• Members will persist (not give up), even in the face of high work-pressure, difficult technical problems, nasty bugs or a difficult sprint;
• Members are generally happy in the team and enjoy working there, on a whole;

Teams with Low Morale usually have the following traits:

• Members withdraw from team activities or don't participate at all;
• Members are not proud of what their team does or are even ashamed;
• Members will stick to a 9-5 (or less) mentality, even though a bit of overwork might turn the tide;
• Members become focussed on doing only their part, and nothing more ('this is not what I was hired for');
• Members will easily give up in the face of trouble;
• Members are generally unhappy in the team and don't enjoy working there, on a whole;

Excellence

Shu

• Individual and squad happiness is emerging as a source for improvement actions.

Ha

• happiness index is used as a standard gauge during retrospective gatherings and generates smart, actionable items for the acceleration list.
• Occasionally, happiness levels are measured on a daily basis to provide input for the gather information stage of the retrospective gathering.

Ri

• happiness index drives the overall company and makes it a great place to work, attracting new hires.

Sources

• http://blog.crisp.se/2010/05/08/henrikkniberg/1273272420000
• http://scrum.jeffsutherland.com/2010/11/happiness-metric-wave-of-future.html
• http://blog.ted.com/2013/04/19/a-visual-look-at-7-things-that-make-us-feel-good-about-work/
• http://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life/ar/pr
• http://www.infoq.com/news/2013/01/measure-analyze-happiness
• http://scrummethodology.com/happiness-metrics/
• http://astore.amazon.com/jeffsutherlasobj/detail/0787988618
• http://astore.amazon.com/jeffsutherlasobj/detail/0470548681
• http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2010/10/happiness-is-overrated.html
• InfoQ » Savita Pahuja » Scaling The Happiness Index
• Crisp » Henrik Kniberg » What is Crisp
• NOOP » Jurgen Appelo » My Happiness Index Is Dead