TEAM ENERGY BAROMETER℠ · FACILITATOR GUIDE
Help Your Team Move the Needle.
The Team Energy Barometer℠ gives everyone an anonymous way to share their capacity for the work ahead—and creates a collective picture the team can explore together.
Use this guide to introduce the instrument, facilitate a constructive conversation, and identify practical next steps.
See How the Barometer Works
Experience a short interactive demonstration of anonymous participation, the collective team reading, and how to turn the results into a useful conversation.
Your Workshop Toolkit
Everything you need to bring the Barometer into your next team meeting, leadership offsite, or facilitated workshop—whether you're collecting responses digitally or on paper.
Paper collection and manual entry are available now. Live digital and hybrid polling are in development. Both resources are free, with no email required.
Everything you need to introduce the Barometer and run a meaningful team reading in your next meeting, workshop, or offsite.
Editable .pptx · Two Slides · 16:9
PDF · US Letter · One Page
Before You Begin
Introduce the Purpose
“Let's take a quick reading of where we are as a team. Choose the state that best fits you right now. There's no right or wrong answer, and no one needs to explain their choice.”
Make Participation Voluntary
Everyone is invited to participate, but responding is optional. The purpose is shared awareness, not achieving a particular score.
Protect Anonymity
Do not collect names or ask anyone to reveal their selection. Collective results appear only with at least three responses. Anonymity is not absolute in very small groups, where people may infer patterns.
Give Everyone a Voice
Digital
In Development
Anonymous responses on participants' own devices. Live device polling is not yet available.
Analog
Available Now
Use the printable handout or another private physical selection method, then enter the six counts manually.
Hybrid
In Development
Combined live digital responses and in-person counts. Hybrid polling is not yet available.
Using the Printable Handout
- Collect
- Count
- Enter
- Reveal
- Distribute the handout and invite participants to mark their beginning state privately.
- Collect or tally responses without identifying individuals.
- Repeat at the close if taking an ending reading.
- Count selections for all six states separately for each reading.
- Enter the six counts in the Barometer's manual-entry interface.
- Record attendance and verify how many responses you received.
- Share the resulting collective Barometer with everyone.
Never display individual handouts or identifiable selections, or ask participants to explain personal choices.
Attendance and Participation
For each reading, record how many people attended and how many responded. The Barometer uses actual responses to calculate the collective reading, while participation information helps put the results in context.
See Where the Team Stands
The instrument, unscored—not a team reading.
Notice, Don't Judge
The goal is to understand the collective picture, not maximize the score.
Explore, Don't Diagnose
Ask what's contributing to the team's experience rather than assuming the reading tells you why the team feels a particular way.
Make Room for Differences
Team members may be experiencing the same work differently. Treat variation as an invitation to curiosity.
Explore What Would Strengthen Capacity
The Barometer gives your team a starting point. Use one or two questions appropriate to the reading and identify a practical step that could help.
DepletedRestore Capacity
“What could we stop, pause, or simplify?”
Practical Step: Remove one unnecessary demand or restore a needed resource.
StrainedReduce Friction
“Where are competing priorities or unnecessary processes stretching us?”
Practical Step: Clarify priorities or simplify a workflow.
GuardedStrengthen Clarity and Trust
“What uncertainty needs attention? What would help us contribute more openly?”
Practical Step: Clarify an unresolved decision, responsibility, or shared agreement.
SteadyStrengthen Engagement
“What's working, and what would help us collaborate more effectively?”
Practical Step: Improve one shared working practice.
ResourcedFocus Capacity
“Where could our available capacity make the greatest difference?”
Practical Step: Align around an important priority.
EnergizedActivate Possibility
“What meaningful opportunity are we ready to pursue together?”
Practical Step: Choose a manageable experiment while protecting sustainable capacity.
These are facilitation prompts, not diagnoses. A reading does not automatically explain why a team is in a particular state; between states, explore questions from both.
No participant should defend an individual response. A higher reading is not automatically evidence of better performance.
One Reading or Many. Your Choice.
Take a Snapshot
One reading at a moment that matters.
Measure the Shift
Compare the beginning and ending of a meeting, workshop, or offsite.
Track over Time
Use recurring readings to recognize patterns as the team works together. Keep your own saved or printed reports; persistent history is in development.
When comparing readings, consider the number of attendees and respondents. Differences in participation can influence the collective result.
A shift in the Barometer gives the team something meaningful to explore, but does not by itself establish what caused that change.
Ready to Move the Needle With Your Team?
Use the Barometer to create a shared picture of your team's capacity and discover what might help everyone move forward.