Free team template
The one hour that rebuilds a team that is undervalued.
A facilitated gratitude session that makes invisible work visible again. Board layout, instructions and timings, ready to run in sixty minutes.
Free download · Miro and Google Slides · No email required
Efficiency
The Time Saver
Effectiveness
A Great Thinker
Ownership
Always There When Needed
Well-Being
You Kept Us Calm
The problem
Work went transactional, and effort stopped being visible.
After the shift to asynchronous work, people deliver a great deal at odd hours and almost nobody sees it. The work lands, the effort disappears.
Then somebody makes a mistake, and that part is very visible. It travels through email threads and team chats within the hour.
When people stop feeling seen for their effort, they stop offering it. The finger-pointing that follows is a symptom, not the cause.
What happens after
Awards and CEO recognition do work. A colleague telling you what she values about your work sits in a different category entirely.
Every team I have run this with has left the room energised and reconnected. People who had been invisible for months heard a peer say their name out loud with a specific reason. The effect lasts well beyond the hour.
Santiago Tacoronte · 20 years leading teams at Mondelez, Emirates, Virgin, and Philip MorrisThe exercise · 60 minutes
Three moves in the hour, and one that outlives it.
01
5 to 10 minutes
Set the frame
The facilitator explains the exercise and takes questions. Any shared board works: Microsoft Whiteboard, Miro, or a physical wall with sticky notes. Say plainly that this is not a performance review and nothing here goes to HR.
02
20 minutes
Fill the board
Everyone writes at the same time. Name the person, then say specifically what they did and when. Silence in this stretch is normal and productive. Resist the urge to fill it.
03
20 minutes
Read them aloud
The facilitator reads each note, naming giver and receiver. Mics stay open so reactions land in the room. Letting each person read their own is more powerful but could run past the hour, which is your call to make.
04
Afterwards
Share the board with everyone
Leave the board open and send everyone the link. It becomes a record of the hour, and people go back to it. Believe me, many will return months later to reread a note somebody wrote about them.
Before you run it
This works on undervalued teams. It does not fix active conflict.
Run it when
- The team delivers steadily and nobody says so.
- Work is asynchronous and effort goes unseen.
- Trust is thin but intact, not broken.
Hold off when
- Trust is genuinely broken. You will get silence and an empty board.
- There is active conflict between named people.
- If unsure, run the idea past your team captains first.
The template
Take it. No form, no email required.
The board laid out across the four Productivity Vectors, the prompts for each, the facilitator script and the timings. Copy it and run it this week.
Questions
Common questions before you run it.
- How many people does this work with?
- Between five and fifteen. Below five it feels exposed, and above fifteen the reading stage runs past the hour. Split larger groups by sub-team.
- Does it work remotely?
- Yes, and that is where you need it more. Use any shared board. Keep cameras and mics open during the reading stage, because the reactions are the point.
- What if people write nothing?
- That is your answer about the state of trust. Stop the exercise and address the underlying issue first. Do not push through the silence.
- Do I need to be a trained facilitator?
- No. It is a humble and authentic exercise of leadership. Any team lead can run it. Staying neutral and reading notes exactly as written is the whole skill.
- Can I run it in person?
- Yes. A wall, sticky notes, and a marker work as well as any board.
- Can I change the note headers?
- Yes. I frame almost everything around the 4 Productivity Vectors, but the headers are yours to set. Use your company values, your team dynamics, or whatever the group actually needs to hear about.
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