What is a “Dirty Laundry” workplace venting session?
A Dirty Laundry workplace venting session is a fun name for a seriously helpful exercise. In this session, participants are able to express frustrations, challenges, and concerns about their work, with the goal of solving problems and minimizing ongoing negativity.
Teams work through a structured session that includes:
- Time-limited venting
- Solution-focused discussions
- Documentação
- Follow-up plans
5 benefits of workplace venting
- Helps manage stress: Venting allows employees to express frustrations, which can provide immediate relief and help them feel supported.
- Improves problem-solving skills: Venting can help identify underlying issues within the team, enabling them to address and resolve issues.
- Creates psychological safety: Allowing employees to vent can create a culture of openness, making them feel heard and acknowledged.
- Boosts productivity: Venting can help employees develop communication and active listening skills, which can lead to better teamwork and productivity.
- Builds relationships: Venting can help employees feel like they belong to a team and build positive relationships with coworkers.
How effective are workplace venting sessions?
A variety of research also supports the importance of structured and managed venting session. Here are some notable findings:
- Venting without a solution-focused approach can intensify burnout (Psychology Today).
- Venting that promotes problem-solving discussions, helps manage stress and enhances overall productivity (Mental Health America).
- Employees who feel heard at work are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work (Integrify).
When should you host a workplace venting session?
Atlassian’s Trello team has run this Play as a preventative exercise in their weekly meeting to help build a team culture that feels safe communicating problems upfront. Teams can also run this Play as a remedy whenever there’s morale issue or they’ve hit a tough spot.
O que você vai precisar
Videoconferência com compartilhamento de tela
Ferramenta de colaboração digital
Whiteboard or empty wall
Marcadores
Notas adesivas
How to productively vent at work
RESUMO DE CINCO SEGUNDOS
- Thank your team for their honesty and assure them this meeting is a safe space for sharing.
- After a brief icebreaker, ask each attendee to share their work challenges and pain points.
- Discuss the challenges as a team and decide which ones you’ll be targeting for resolution.
1. Preparação 5 min
Invite 2-15 team members to the Dirty Laundry Play. For distributed or remote teams, start by creating a collaboration document, like a Confluence page or whiteboard. For in-person teams, find an empty wall or whiteboard and set out sticky notes and markers.
Label a blank page.
2. Prepare o cenário 5 min
Encouraging open discussion about work challenges is significant as it involves vulnerability from the team. Before beginning, recognize the difficulty in sharing tough realities, emphasizing that the goal is not to place blame but to improve and solve issues together. Success relies on the unique contributions of every team member present.
“Hi Team! Thanks for joining the Dirty Laundry Play! The goal of this workshop is to create a safe environment for us to share our workplace woes, blockers, or challenges so we can turn our workplace venting sessions into positive actions.”
“To help us do that, we’re going to start with an icebreaker question.”
3. Get personal 20 MINUTOS
To highlight the variety (and importance!) of each team member’s background and perspective, have everyone answer the same personal icebreaker question in the collaboration document or on a sticky note. Not sure what to ask? Here are some ideas:
- What was your favorite concert experience?
- If your 12-year-old self was sitting at this table, who would they say is their biggest hero?
- What’s the best meal you’ve ever had?
- How did you land this job?
-
If you were stranded on an island, what’s the one thing you’d bring with you?
Set a timer for five minutes so everyone has a chance to submit their answers. Then, ask each person to share the “why” behind their responses.
“The goal of this icebreaker question is to get to know each other a little better and get us ready to open up. So, let’s take five minutes to answer this icebreaker question.”
[ 1-2 minutes to write an answer]
“Let’s have each person share their answers to the icebreaker question and why they responded with that.”
[ 15 minutes to discuss answers]
“Thank you, everyone, for being so honest with your answers. That was a fun way to get to know each other better and it sets the stage for our Play today.”
You can use fun icons, sticky notes, or just plain text to write out answers.
4. Air it out 20 MINUTOS
Now that everyone’s a bit more comfortable, it’s time to get into it! Have each person share one thing that’s currently creating a hurdle for them at work.
It can be anything – big or small. Is there a manual process that takes way too long? An organizational change that’s causing anxiety? Not enough pens in the supply closet?
Set a timer for 10 minutes so that everyone can transfer their problems to the collaboration space. Remind the team to be respectful of each other by not adding gossip or personal grievances to the board.
“The goal of this Dirty Laundry Play is to identify the team’s workplace blockers. To do this, we need to start by identifying what problems are keeping the team from their best work.”
“Take the next 5-10 minutes to write out one thing that’s making it difficult to get your work done.”
“There are no wrong answers, but we do ask that you remain respectful in this process. For example, instead of calling out the name of a colleague who spoke over you in the meeting, you might write ‘sharing in meetings without interruptions.’”
“If you see things you agree with get added to the collaboration space, add a +1 to the answer.”
[ 10 minutes to write answers]
Tip: Avoid the blame game
Honesty is the best policy, for sure, but be careful to steer the team away from turning the time into an epic trolling session. Finger-pointing is never productive.
5. Leave it on the line 10 min
Now you can visualize your team’s pain points and areas that need extra problem-solving. Together, discuss which workplace woes get a commiserating head nod and which ones you’ll take action on together.
“Thanks for venting your workplace woes. It’s really helpful to see them written out, and hopefully, it feels good to get these off your chest!”
“Our next step is to categorize which problems are causing the most disruption and prioritize finding solutions for them. These are the pieces of ‘dirty laundry’ we will add to the line. Let’s take 10 minutes to categorize these.”
[ 10 minutes to categorize and discuss]
“By completing this Play together, we’ve identified the top challenges keeping our team from doing our best work and smaller challenges to be mindful of.”
“We appreciate everyone’s participation in sharing and will set up a Problem Framing Play next to work on finding solutions.”
Here’s a visual of your team’s biggest blockers.
Tip: Give everyone a voice
There are always those in the room whose voices ring a little louder than others. Help your less outspoken team members feel like their contributions are heard by asking them follow-up questions and encouraging them to elaborate.
Acompanhamentos
After the team has identified the challenges to focus on, check out our our Problem Framing and/or Sparring Plays to repair them.
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