sweet root

It’s no secret that we spend a lot of time at Sweet Root focused on team bonding. One of our highest priorities when adding a new team member is personality and team dynamics. We pay the closest attention to how we all gel as a unit and for this reason, our team has always gotten along very well. Our team is our family.

But family or not, there are always bumps in the road and times we miscommunicate. Outside forces and home life, or simply a bad morning, can be what makes or breaks the best of intentions for team spirit on any given day. We’ve learned to combat this and want to share a very handy quick tool we utilize as a team every morning to help us all start off each day on the same page.

Highs and Lows

Each of us views the world differently, responds to conflict in a different way, finds joy in unique things, and shares personal things in personalized ways. So on the average day, when one of us is a lot quieter about our struggles, that person can feel minimized and unseen when a larger personality “claims the spotlight” and garners the most attention for their aches and pains. We had noticed team members having tough days but if we were too busy to stop and chat, we were spending large portions of the day thinking that individual was upset with us for any given number of reasons. Tons of classic miscommunications right and left that could all be solved with a little bit more open honesty if given the opportunity and the structure to be so.

We also wanted to encourage positivity. That we could leave our other troubles at the door and walk into the studio with something to be grateful for. And the hard stuff is easier to leave behind if we can just speak it out loud and have someone present to hear us and know us.

So we all installed the application Marco Polo on our phones.

We created a group called “high / low” and added our entire team to it. Before we step foot in the door or get started for the day, we each record a very quick video message to the group explaining a low moment or feeling of the day and following it with a high moment or feeling.

These LOWS can be as simple as “I didn’t have time to make coffee this morning and I am FEELING it” and as deep as sharing feelings of anxiety and depression that we don’t quite know how to put words to.

The HIGHS can be goals met and things worth celebrating or even small things like “feeling grateful that there is less traffic today than normal.” Absolutely anything, but ideally there is SOMETHING. To remind us of good in the world and things worth being happy about before we walk into the work day.

This allows our entire team a chance to share feelings and say important things without having to be face-to-face with someone else. We don’t respond to each other’s messages, just each share our own. There is no pressure to relate or to lament or comment, and there is no judgment. But we all get to know where the rest of us are mentally, physically, and emotionally and we have more grace for one another throughout the day.

We’ve seen a drastic uptick in the levels of positivity at the studio and less miscommunication and more openness in general between our whole team since starting this morning ritual.

We highly recommend it.

– What does your team do to keep spirits high?
– What do your team rituals look like?
– Can you identify areas you can see obvious struggle?
– How can you facilitate fixing that?