Creating inclusion and safety through check-in questions
As I’m looking out for my next role to help build high-performing psychologically safe teams I wanted to share my experience of the power of check-in questions.
I first properly started using check-in questions during the pandemic and then more so in 2021 when I moved to the Co-op Customer Experience team. Working in ambiguity and remote contexts make check-in’s even more important. When you don’t have those lets grab a brew in the kitchen or pre-meeting chit chat moments we can feel more disconnected from our colleagues.
Intention behind check-ins
Collaboration always comes with the potential for team cohesion and connection. Increase the chances of this by simply beginning and ending team sessions with checking-in and checking-out. By answering a question together, at the start of sessions we can become more aligned and at the end of a session more enlightened.
Why are check-in questions so powerful?
- Give everyone a voice at the start of a meeting
- You get a read of the room
- Build human connection
- Enable reflection and learning
- Allow creativity and playfulness
- Show empathy
- Model wellbeing
- Create accountability
What check-in auto generator tools are there?
It’s nice to start meetings with a quick-fire psychological safety building check-in. Try these auto generators and see which you and your team enjoy the most.
There are all sorts of tools, my favourite is daresay but after a look around here are a few other suggestions
- https://checkin.daresay.io/
- https://tscheck.in/ – this can be added to slack
- Donut – a way to have water cooler check-in chats
- https://teambuilding.com/blog/get-to-know-you-questions
- https://hypercontext.com/meeting-questions-bot
How I have used check-in questions
- Monday motives – intention and goals for the week
- Wellbeing Wednesday – rotated stand-up question across the team
- Open up retros with what the group need to feel safe to contribute
- Closing retros with reflections which help to bed in learnings
- Kicking off workshops with a mental capacity check to check on folks ability to take on new information
- Thursday appreciation threads – asking folks to share thanks for little things this is an asynchronous check-in via slack workflow
Example check-in questions
If you’re still struggling here are a few to get you started. I added this to a recent ways of working playbook to act as a prompt to get folks comfortable with using them.
Workshop check-in
- What are you here for?
- Where are you coming from?
Monday morning check-ins
- What is your goal for the week?
- What support do you need this week?
- What is a possible blocker this week?
- Whats your biggest worry about the work?
- How confident do you feel going into this week?
Wellbeing Wednesday
- What is your go to stress relieving technique?
- What is your favourite feel good song?
- What does a good break look like?
- What are the signs you’re stressed at work?
You don’t even need to be a delivery manager to bring this sort of thinking into your teams. Spending a few moments at the start of a meeting having a human moment of connection helps people to feel seen, heard and understood.
In a world where we want to build more inclusive and hybrid work environments the simple act of asking a check-in question can make a huge difference.
What are some of your go to check-in questions?
