In Times of Stress, Build Your Team’s Resilience Rituals

Part 2 of the 5-point checklist: Airflow

A Diving Checklist approach, written by Luciana Barrancos in collaboration with Skylyte

2) Managing airflow; in diving terminology: Check Airflow

Make sure your team has the stamina it needs. The first thing to keep in mind is to check that we’re all managing our ‘battery’ levels or, in diving terminology, our ‘airflow’ levels.

What does it mean?

People are different in terms of what gives and takes away from their energy (e.g. being an extrovert or introvert), and this is also dependent on the context. A useful resource to help identify this is Skylyte’s Resilient Typology quiz. As times have changed — and our sources of energy as well, we recommend having weekly conversations to understand how you can better manage your team’s airflow.

Remember — everyone is dealing with different pressures in their personal life and their own predispositions. Ask yourself the question regularly (both as a team-member and team-lead): do I have a sense of each person’s oxygen levels? Without knowing this it will be hard for you to be flexible within your team to redistribute work, or to ensure that the team is on the same page.

Sample rituals

For your team meetings, think of including a quick “pulse number” on your team’s energy level at the beginning and end of each meeting. This is a very simple way to understand where people are coming from and their feelings.

You can also implement that into your written communication. For that, similar to the diving signals, create a list of shared signals (think of emojis) to easily communicate people’s work & emotional status. This can be a helpful tool to say things that are hard, and create a shared common language as a result. You can add that next to your name on your status on Slack, Zoom or other workspace platforms. Below is some inspiration for you:

Encourage your team to keep track of each other’s “shared signals”, and observe if there are too many 🙆🏽 or 🆘 signs floating around. Remember to help carry each other’s weights by listening to each other and over-communicating your highs and lows.

Reminder prompt: “Help me if you can, I’m feeling down; And I do appreciate you being ‘round”