Does make sense to measure the psychological health of people/collaborators/workers in projects? Which metrics or indexes have been used/are suggested? How frequent that evaluation/assessment must be
It depends on what the data is going to be used for and how it is gathered, analyzed and reported. If it is done at the team level to help the team's morale and effectiveness improve and the data remains at the team level and isn't shared in an identifiable manner that's one thing. If it ends up creating an environment which is less safe, then that's another entirely.
Kiron Saving Changes...
Peter RapinSubject Matter Expect; Project Delivery| Independent ConsultantOntario, Canada
Measuring and documenting psychological heath gets into a private and sensitive area. It is also an area requiring specialized knowledge and training. Its one thing to ask "how are you" its quite another to make sense of the answer and ask the follow-up questions. As an employee I would be concerned having this kind of analysis placed on file by an unqualified manager. Even more so without my knowledge or opportunity to response.
Example: Boss - "How are you doing?"
Employee - "Fine"
Record by boss - "Asked Sam how he's doing. He said 'fine' but I saw some stress on his face. Need to keep an eye on him."
Later - employee misses promotion because boss noted he was under stress and needed to be watched. Employee sues for access to file and starts court action. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Nuno
there are significant human dignity considerations with this, as Peter also mentions. I remember a video from a Chinese school class where an AI is monitoring kids and identifies if they do not pay attention, e.g. closing eyes, looking bored etc.
On the other hand, it is possible and done in many areas to monitor individual behaviours and even thinking, it is done in most social media since years and it is used in influencing, 'correcting' behaviours and changing moods. To be observed in war time propaganda, if you are able to identify it.
So, regarding project teams, I would say the justification for this individual monitoring and influencing is ethically not given yet. In contrast, we should look for more diversity of thinking to identify solutions to problems. This by balancing it with team cohesion and team trust, which can be monitored and should be influenced. There are tools like perflo, which analyses team communications, that support this already.
Regarding metrics, already in 2000 I saw a project using a weekly team morale index to not only monitor the team but the total project. They showed that a team feels problems before they occur and far before they show up in EV or other measurements.
To add to my earlier feedback, Spotify started using a multi-question stoplight based regular survey to understand how teams were feeling. These evaluations were then used as an input into continuous improvement efforts by the team and their leadership.
I think somebody should come up with a way to breed a very large shrimp. That way, you could ride him, then, after you camped at night, you could eat him. How about it, science?
