Getting started

Running a team survey

For whoever organises the survey: a manager, a team lead, or anyone the team trusts to run it. Building a survey takes you about five minutes; answering it takes each person about three.

Before and during

1. Start a survey.Every plan

   Build a survey and confirm your email address with a six-digit code. There is no password.

2. Name the team and say roughly how big it is.Every plan

   The team name is shown to the people answering. The size is between four and thirty and is used to show you how many have answered so far. Four is the minimum because with fewer people, nobody can answer anonymously.

3. Add a scope note, if it helps.Every plan

   An optional note your team reads first, saying which team and which context to answer for. There’s example wording you can use.

4. Choose the statements.Every plan

   Pick seven to ten that fit your context, plus the recommended voice and power set. Fewer questions get more responses. Starting from the research? Tick the Edmondson seven adds the seven questions adapted from Amy Edmondson's 1999 scale in one go. See the full question bank.

5. Add up to five statements of your own.Every plan

   In the words your team actually uses: “debriefs” rather than “retrospectives”, say. One idea per statement, phrased so that agreeing means safety.

6. Create it and send the respond link.Every plan

   You get one link to send to the whole team, and an email ready to copy that tells them why you’re asking and that it’s anonymous. Say when you’ll release the report, and then keep to it.

7. Watch the responses arrive.Every plan

   We send you a short note each time someone answers, and you can turn these notes off from a link in any of them. Your dashboard shows the count and how many more are needed before the report opens, but never who has answered.

8. Reminders, if things go quiet.Every plan

   If nobody has answered yet, or responses stop for a few days, we email you to say so and suggest what usually helps. Sending the link round again often does.

Closing, reading and releasing

1. Close the survey.Every plan

   Once at least four people have answered, close it from your dashboard and the report is built. Closing is one-way: all it gives up is further responses.

2. Or let it close itself.Every plan

   If a survey has had no new responses for a week, we close it, build the report and email you. Nothing goes to your team.

3. Read the report first.Every plan

   Only you can see it until you release it, and you can read it as often as you like. The whole report is included, down to the plan of actions: see an example.

4. Release it to the team.Every plan

   It takes one click. Everyone with the respond link then sees the identical report. They can see that it is waiting for release, so keep your review brief.

5. Take it into a conversation.Every plan

   Two or three findings, a team conversation, and the experiments the report suggests. What teams do next has more.

If something needs fixing

• Lost the respond link?Every plan

  While a survey is open, you can issue a fresh one from your dashboard. The old link stops working immediately, and answers already given are kept.

• Closed too early?Every plan

  If we closed it for you and you haven’t read the report yet, you can reopen it for more responses and the same link keeps working. Once the report has been read it can’t be reopened, because comparing two reports would reveal what one person answered.

• Built one you don’t need?Every plan

  You can remove a survey from your dashboard as long as nobody has answered it. It and its link go for good.

Measuring again

1. Survey the same team again.TeamPractitionerOrganisation

   After a few months, build a new survey and pick the same team, and it joins up as the next wave. There’s no key to keep.

2. See what changed since last time.TeamPractitionerOrganisation

   The report for each new wave shows what changed, theme by theme, alongside a fresh plan.

On Free, your first survey is the one included. Its report stays yours to read, and measuring the same team again is what the Team plan is for.

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What your team sees

The same on every plan. It helps to tell people this before you send the link.

• About three minutes, one statement at a time.Every plan

  Each statement is one screen, and they say how much they agree, thinking about the last few months. Your scope note comes first.

• Anonymous by design.Every plan

  Nobody is asked for a name or an email. Responses are stored with no identifiers, dated but never timed, and nobody (including you) can tell which response is whose.

• Comments are shared as written.Every plan

  Anything written in a comment box is shown to the whole team word for word, shuffled and separated from the rest of that person’s answers.

• The same report as you, through the same link.Every plan

  The report stays sealed until the survey closes with at least four answers. Once you release it, the link they answered on shows everyone the identical report.

The detail of what is and isn’t recorded is in Privacy & terms and Security and data.

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Practitioners and consultants

For consultants, coaches, facilitators and internal practitioners working with several teams. Each survey runs exactly as above. This is what the Practitioner / Consultant licence adds. There’s more on working with clients on the practitioners page.

1. Up to ten teams, each with its own history.PractitionerOrganisation

   Give each team its own name in the builder. On an Organisation licence it’s up to ten per organiser. If you work with more than ten, talk to us.

2. Use it with your clients, and charge for it.Practitioner

   The licence is yours and the teams can be theirs. Send the respond link to your client’s team, and release the report to them when you’re ready.

3. Measure each team again.TeamPractitionerOrganisation

   Pick the team in the builder and the new survey joins up as its next wave. Another wave of a team you already have never counts as a new team.

4. Export results as data.PractitionerOrganisation

   Download a team’s report as a CSV file for your own analysis. It holds the counts and averages the report shows, and never individual responses or comments.

5. Enhanced support.PractitionerOrganisation

   Your questions go to the front of the queue and are answered by the people who built the tool.

6. 10% off all Psych Safety training.PractitionerOrganisation

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Organisation administrators

For whoever holds an Organisation licence. You look after seats and your organisers, and you see what is happening across teams. You never see any one team’s results. Everything here is on the Organisation licence only. See a sample organisation dashboard.

Setting up

1. Plan the first rollout with us.Organisation

   The licence is invoiced annually and comes with a thirty-minute call to plan your first rollout. Talk to us to start.

2. Open the organisation dashboard.Organisation

   Sign in as usual. Your own dashboard has a link through to the organisation dashboard.

3. Assign seats to your organisers.Organisation

   Enter an address at your organisation’s domain and they get an invitation, then sign in with their own emailed code. Surveying a team that’s already on the licence costs no further seats.

4. Resend or remove.Organisation

   If someone hasn’t signed in yet, you can resend their invitation. If you remove a seat, that person keeps any surveys they’ve already built, but can’t start new ones under the licence.

5. Write the organisers’ panel.Organisation

   A line or two of introduction, who to talk to, and links to your own resources. Your organisers see it on their dashboard and beside their reports. Their teams don’t.

6. Single sign-on, on request.Organisation

   SAML or OIDC, if your organisation needs it.

What you see

• Seats and activity.Organisation

  Who has a seat, whether they’ve signed in, and how many surveys each has built and closed. You never see what any of those surveys found.

• Across the organisation.Organisation

  What holds people back and what makes speaking up possible, pooled across teams, once at least two teams have finished. Each team counts once, from its most recent survey.

• Since last time.Organisation

  Once at least three teams have measured again, how many moved up, down or held level on each theme.

• Export as data.Organisation

  The organisation-wide figures as a CSV file, still pooled and anonymised.

• Audit trail, on request.Organisation

  Who did what on the licence and when: seats, surveys, exports and the organisers’ panel. Ask us and we’ll switch it on. It’s kept from the start of the licence either way.

Coming to the Organisation licence

• How the organisation changes, quarter by quarter. Coming soon

• Cohort view: every team that measured in a given month. Coming soon

• Views by division, each with its own administrator. Coming soon

• Organisation statements, offered to every team’s survey. Coming soon

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