MEPS Check-in
Personal Check-in for Increasing Emotional Connection Among Team Members
Healthy team dynamics are hard to maintain. People are complicated. Whether we like it or not, that complexity makes its way into the workplace. It impacts every interaction.
As work gets more challenging and busier, interpersonal connections weaken. As a result, team members feel less safe being vulnerable.
Personal check-ins help.
Starting important meetings with personal check-ins will increase empathy, strengthen relationships, and foster greater creativity. A popular check-in we've used for years is MEPS.
MEPS is an acronym for Mental, Emotional, Physical, and Spiritual.
During MEPS, team members reflect and disclose how they're doing across each of the four categories. Making space for people to be open and vulnerable can seem unproductive at the moment, but the long-term benefits of a tightly connected team will far outweigh the costs.
Who is it for? Everyone.
The greater the need for cohesiveness and alignment among a team, the greater the value of MEPS.
Our executive team does MEPS every 1–2 weeks together.
Our departments do it every month or so.
My wife and I have even done it while driving on date nights.
Disclaimer: People get weird about the word "spiritual." People almost immediately conflate spiritual with religion, which gets prickly. The working definition that's most agreeable is anything involving a connection to something bigger than yourself. (Meaningful work, parenting, volunteering, community gathering, etc. )
How it Works
- Everyone takes 1–2 minutes at the start of the meeting to reflect on each of the four categories and assess how they're feeling.
- Team members take turns sharing their check-in across all four categories.
- To signify the end of someone's turn, they state, "and with that, I'm in." Then the group replies in unison, "welcome [sharer name]!"
- Once everyone shares, the meeting proceeds.
Step #3 can be omitted as it admittedly can feel strange (and somewhat cult-like), but I'd encourage you to try it out. It's suggested as part of the activity for a reason.
Rules
There are only three rules to MEPS.
- Whoever introduces the check-in is the first to share.
- No meh-words like 'good', 'fine', and 'okay'.
- It's time for people to share, not for the group to try to fix.
Modifications
Limit the sharing (from Step #3). Ask people to reflect on all four categories but only share the one category that stands out the most.
Timelimit. Instruct everyone that responses will be capped to 1 minute. Set a physical timer that the group can hear beeping to avoid acquired interruptions.
One word. Ask for a single word in each category instead of a complete check-in.
Plan more time. The more time that passes between check-ins, the longer they will take. For a group's first check-in or first-in-a-while, anticipate it taking longer than expected and plan accordingly.
