Work Life Impact in action
A team member walks through his selections for the three Work Life Impact areas using MURAL and video chat.
A remote team uses Confluence to share and document how the Work Life Impact areas affect them personally.
A team member discusses the Work Life Impact areas that fit her best.
What you'll need
Remote
Video conferencing with screen sharing
Digital collaboration tool (see templates)
Work Life Impact area details
In-person
Meeting space
Work Life Impact area details
Optional templates
Atlassian Templates
Other Templates
Instructions for running this Play
1. Conduct a safety check 10 MIN
The Work Life Impact Play requires a certain amount of candor and vulnerability from people to be successful. Therefore, before running this Play, we strongly suggest you poll your team to ensure everyone is comfortable with it.
You can share a link to this page, alongside an (ideally anonymous) poll to determine your team members’ willingness to engage with the process. Everyone should feel comfortable and secure sharing their personal experiences with remote work.
Example: Safety Check
Here’s what an anonymous Slack poll with your team might look like. If the average response is 3 or below, do not run this Play.
2. Prepare your practice 30 MIN
After confirming the team is comfortable having this discussion, prepare a new collaboration document. Create a space for each team member and add their name and photo (if you like) so everything is ready to go!
Next, download a copy of the Work Life Impact worksheet.
For each team member’s space in the document, add in the three Work Life Impact area boxes:
- Home office
- Role requirements
- Support networks
Add in the descriptions and text above each box and divide each box into four quadrants. Each team member needs a way to select the quadrant that most applies to them, as well as space to jot down thoughts or comments.
For a few ideas about how to implement this in your document, check out the images under the Work Life Impact in action section. The simplest way might be to insert a copy of the PDF into the document for each team member and have them mark them up directly. Alternatively, you can grab one of our pre-made templates from the optional template section.
Tip: Alternative
If your team does not feel comfortable discussing their remote work challenges as a group, consider running a Team Health Monitor Play instead.
3. Set the stage 5 MIN
At the beginning of the workshop, emphasize that
- Everyone’s experience is unique.
- Everyone should share only as much or as little as they want.
- There are no right or wrong answers.
- The team will always assume positive intent.
This Play can be a powerful tool for improving wellbeing, building workplace relationships, and bringing your team closer together — but only if everyone is on the same page about creating a safe space.
Tip: THIRD PARTY
If possible, ask a neutral third party to help facilitate the meeting. This may encourage greater participation and uncover more insights.
4. Identify Work Life Impact areas 10 MIN
Review the three Work Life Impact areas one at a time.
As you review, ask each participant to choose one of the four sections that best reflects their experience over the last month. Participants should also jot down thoughts about why they selected that section.
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Example: Choices
See how someone maps herself to one of four options on the Work Life Impact area boxes.
5. Reflect and discuss 30 MIN
Once everyone has made their selections, encourage the team to take a step back and discuss them with each other. Here are some questions that can be used as conversation starters:
- Why did you select this section of the box?
- What are you finding difficult or challenging?
- What do you need to succeed while working remotely?
The challenge here will be allowing the discussion to flow organically while also ensuring that every topic gets covered within the time constraints of the meeting. Don’t be afraid to break this up into more than one session, if necessary.
TIP: BE SENSITIVE
Everyone will process this exercise differently. Give the team the option of sharing their reflections, rather than forcing everyone to contribute. Make sure you listen actively and give each person the attention they need.
6. Actions 15 MIN
Brainstorm actions as a team by prompting everyone to answer these questions:
- What's something that you are going to change or do differently moving forward?
- What's something you can do to better support someone else?
- What can we try as a team to support one another better?
- What can the organization help you with?
Discuss actions as a team. Assign owners and due dates to the actions as necessary.
EXAMPLE: Actions
Here’s a sample list of action items.
Follow-up
One-on-one meeting
For managers or team leads, use this Play as a starting point for further discussion in private meetings with your team members to see how you can support their unique situation and help them thrive. This is especially important during times of major change.
Available support
Take some of the themes covered in the workshop and discuss them with your own leader or HR team to see what options or resources might be available.
Variations
At the office
If your team works in the same location some of the time, you can also run this Play in person. In this case, consider printing the PDF for everyone to fill out by hand during the meeting.
Explore other Plays
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