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Dialogue toolbox

created for support & reference by Community Organisation+

Introduction

Crucial to the success of any team, is how well each team member can perform, which largely depends on the wellbeing of the team members. High work pressure is a known risk factor in higher education, that can cause work stress and eventually health problems. Also developments in the private life of colleagues can lead to increased workload, potentially leading to problems with maintaining a healthy work-life balance, causing stress.

Addressing such issues in dialogues within the team, has shown to be a successful intervention for improving wellbeing and reducing workload (e.g. Bronkhorst, 2018; Maccow & Nijenkamp, 2023), for various reasons. As the team works towards a shared purpose, these dialogues contribute to improved insights into how all team members can contribute. This could result in increased support for each other, or perhaps downscaling the ambitions to match better with the available capacity within the team.

How to

Download the JDR model here 

A good starting point for addressing well-being in your team would be to invite all team members to reflect on their own individual well-being balance. You can do this using the attached worksheet, based on the Job Demands-Resources Model (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner & Schaufeli, 2001):

How to use the JDR worksheet?

  1. Individual reflection. All team members take some time to individually reflect on their stressors and energy sources, using the questions in the worksheet. If necessary, the team can decide to focus only on work-related factors, or to zoom in on a specific topic, such as stressors and energy sources from working together as a team or from specific tasks (e.g., teaching, coordination tasks, writing policy, administrative tasks, etc.).

  1. Dialogue. Once each team member has finished, start a dialogue on what everyone has filled in – go to the 'Well-being dialogue' page for more information about how to have a dialogue about wellbeing. It can be helpful to be clear about the purpose of the dialogue. The first step could be simply to listen and learn about how team members are experiencing work at the moment; this can greatly contribute to relationships and empathy within the team. As a team, you can also decide to use the dialogue to establish the main bottlenecks and work together to find solutions. However, this would usually result in a much longer dialogue and it would be important to decide on a specific focus to make the dialogue more effective. Consider involving a team coach to facilitate this exercise.

  1. Repetition is key. The balance between stressors and energy sources is dynamic. Consider making it a habit to repeat this exercise with your team from time to time, so you can respond to developments as they occur. 

Check out the ‘Explanation of the JDR model’ tab to learn more about this model.

 

Download the JDR model here

To better understand work pressure, BUas uses the Job Demands - Resources model (Schaufeli & Taris, 2013). The premise is that job characteristics can be classified as stressors or as energy sources, which can lead to stress reactions (such as work pressure, burnout) or to well-being (such as engagement, productivity). This in turn leads to positive or negative outcomes for the individual or the organisation. It is important to note that the model does not name specific positive or negative work characteristics, because in theory any work characteristic can be a potential source of work stress or energy, and this can be different for each individual. For example, in a situation where the professional feels confident, and has adequate knowledge and skills and feels supported by their team and manager, the factor ‘autonomy’ can be considered an energy sources. But for the same person, autonomy might sometimes also be a stressor, if they are asked to show autonomy in a situation that they do not feel comfortable with, e.g. because of insufficient expertise, or lack of support from the team. In other words, it depends on the context and the individual which factors can be classified as stressors or energy sources. Additionally, not only work related factors play a role, but also factors from the private life can lead to stress reactions or wellbeing, and can therefore be classified as either stressors or energy sources.

References

Schaufeli, W & Taris, T (2013) The Job Demands-Resources Model: A critical review, Gedrag & Organisatie, volume 26, June 2013, nr. 2, pp. 182-204

Well-being dialogue

Download the example statements here

To get the conversation about a well-being issue going, it can be helpful to start the session with a short survey on the topic.

  • Choose a maximum of 8 statements about a wellbeing issue that is relevant to the team at the moment. Examples include work-life balance, team communication, hybrid working, workplace safety, work pressure, team self-organisation, etc. Below you can download a list of examples of statements.
  • Make sure that each team member can respond to the statements on a 1-5 or 1-7 scale. Try using Mentimeter or a similar online tool for easy data collection and presentation.
  • There is no scientific purpose to the survey, just a quick way to gather some initial information and give each team member the opportunity to contribute.
  • Plan plenty of time for your meeting. Depending on the size of the team, it can easily take 2 to 3 hours to have a proper dialogue. At the start of the meeting, present the results of the survey in such a way that it shows the range of scores (i.e., the lowest and highest score on each statement). Check out the Mentimeter screenshot below for an example.
  • A good opening question would be to ask the team what stands out to them when they look at the results. Try to focus on the range of responses rather than the averages. For example, if the questions were about work pressure, and some people in the team say  their work pressure is fine or low, but others say it is too high, this would be something to explore further. What makes the experience of work pressure so different within the team?
  • Make sure it is a dialogue in which team members actively listen to each other. It should not be a discussion. Everyone’s experience is equally as important, so make sure everyone gets enough ‘air time’ to share their story.
  • If specific bottlenecks are addressed in the dialogue within the team’s circle of influence, the team can decide to look for solutions themselves. Try to encourage team members to come up with solutions to their own bottlenecks, as people tend to feel more ownership of solutions they have come up with themselves.

In this screenshot, automatically generated by Mentimeter, you can see the average score on each statement. And the ‘wave’ with each statement shows the range of scores. In this example, you can see that on the first statement, some people scored a 2, some scored around a 3 and 4, and some people scored a 6 or 7.

 

In a team dialogue about well-being or work pressure, the conversation will at some point move towards defining a problem and finding solutions. It is often the case that only one or a few individuals experience a particular problem, and they may even all experience it in different ways. So make sure that the dialogue makes it clear who the problem owner is, so that the other team members automatically become helpers or consultants who can help the problem owner find a suitable solution. Below you can find helpful principles for the role of consultant, which can be applied in a one-to-one or group setting. These principles are taken from the philosophy of Process Consultation (Schein, 1969) – Building the Helping Relationship.

  • Based on the roles of ‘client’ (problem owner, coachee, person seeking advice) and ‘consultant’ (person asked to help solve a problem, advisor, coach, helper).
  • The client owns not only the problem, but also the solution to their question. The core conviction is that the consultant can never know as much about the specific situation and history to be giving specific recommendations on what the client should do to improve the situation. In other words, as consultant: stay away from giving advice on how you think the problem owner should solve the problem
  • Mutual trust is important, the client should feel safe to share information and emotions that would normally lead to stress or fear. The consultant plays an important role in creating a safe environment, for example, by withholding judgement and by promoting an equal position with the client.
  • The client is also owner of their own observations, emotions and convictions. It is about their emotions and experience, and these can be different from those of the consultant. So if the client describes a situation as being stressful, that is what it is. Whether or not the consultant might not find such a situation stressful, is irrelevant. So as a consultant, try to switch off your own judgement.

As a consultant your main task is to listen actively, and to ask good questions. Schein distinguishes between three types of questions that should be used to guide the problem owner towards a deeper understanding of the problem. These questions do not provide a fixed format or item list. It should be a conversation, not an interview, so by listening carefully, the consultant can switch between the different types of questions.

  • Pure research: what, when who, how. Focus on getting facts. To get facts, avoid ‘why’ questions and stay away from judgements in such questions. Use silence to encourage the client to add more.
  • Explorative or diagnostic research: These questions ask for emotional responses, motives for events or actions. They are about the client’s motives, beliefs and experiences. Or what the client thinks the motives, beliefs, etc. of others involved in the situation were. These questions encourage the client to explore new perspectives.
    • Tip: If your client is only talking about emotions, try asking for facts, and vice versa.
  • Confronting research: As a consultant, integrate process ideas or content-related ideas into the questions. As a consultant, you invite the client to respond to alternative responses to the situation or problem. In such questions you can also present alternative motives or beliefs of stakeholders in the situation that is being addressed.
    • Tip: Typically, you would start with the first two types of questions to get an idea of the situation, before introducing this third type of question into the conversation. Be mindful about the words you choose, as you are not supposed to give advice. Formulate it as a question.

Use active listening to be able to time questions adequately, and be mindful of your own opinion or judgement. It should be about the client, not about the consultant. If you use this questioning technique successfully, you will find that the client ‘sees’ more, they can gain a renewed understanding of the problem that they are experiencing. In this process, they become more patient about finding a solution to their problem. Instead, they become interested in learning and truly understanding the problem. Sometimes, this deeper understanding alone can bring relief to the client, and can be a solution in itself.

  • Make groups of 3: client, consultant, observer
  • Client determines which work pressure/well-being question they would like help with.
  • Consultant engages in dialogue about this, using the principles and skills.
  • Observer observes to what extent the consultant was able to apply the principles and skills (see handout), and what the effect was.
  • 2 minutes to prepare your role
  • 10 minutes for the dialogue
  • 3 minutes of feedback from observer to consultant

Resources

At BUas, we know that work pressure is a real challenge. That’s why we have developed a work pressure policy focusing not only on reducing workload, but on improving your well-being and work-life balance too.

Do you want to know more about well-being and work pressure? Check out the renewed BUas work pressure policy: edubuas.sharepoint.com/sites/hrm/Shared Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?id=/sites/hrm/Shared Documents/Werkdruk/Work pressure policy 2024_def-v2_UK 2025.pdf&parent=/sites/hrm/Shared Documents/Werkdruk

There is a workshop available through CTL, if your team is interested in learning more about why it is important to address well-being within the team, and learn about methods and tips on how to do this successfully. Contact CTL for more information.

Bronkhorst, B. (2018, April 26). Healthy and Safe Workplaces in Health Care: examining the role of safety climate. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/105542

Maccow, D., Nijenkamp, R. (2023). Werken aan werkdruk bij opleidingsteams in het hbo. Aan de slag met de knelpunten uit het diagnostisch werkdrukinstrument. Zestor

Schaufeli, W & Taris, T (2013) The Job Demands-Resources Model: A critical review, Gedrag & Organisatie, volume 26, June 2013, nr. 2, pp. 182-204 Retrieved from: https://www.wilmarschaufeli.nl/publications/Schaufeli/401.pdf

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