02.05.2023 Isabel Hempel 11454

Test: How much strength and energy does your team have?

With the "Filling the energy barrel" method, you can find out what the current energy balance is like for you personally, in your team or in your company.

In the long term, we can only draw from our energy system what we replenish. It is therefore good to know what draws our energy, what gives us energy and how we can maintain it in the long term.

The "Filling the energy barrel" method can be carried out individually, but also together in small and large groups.

Prepare the following materials and plan ten to 20 minutes for the exercise:

1. A prepared flipchart with an empty energy barrel drawn on it and a flipchart paper with the two or three questions mentioned below (you can also hand out prepared templates showing an empty energy barrel for each individual).
2. Thick pins

Instructions for the exercise in a larger group

1. the seminar leader introduces the method

The trainer introduces the method and points to the prepared flipchart with the empty energy barrel. She explains that the energy barrel can be filled in different ways, depending on the personal condition, the challenges experienced, the subjective experience of stress, etc.

2. what is my energy level and that of my team?

Each participant should now consider for themselves how high their energy level is (for themselves personally, for the team, for the company).

The seminar leader can give examples of how the fill level of the energy barrels can be displayed, for example:

3. what is the current status of the energy barrel?

The seminar leader asks: What is your current fill level?

Once the question has been answered in plenary, the seminar leader, the respective small group or the individual draws the fill level on the energy barrel.

In the next step, the following three aspects should be added (the third question is optional):

1. Which activities, situations, events, etc. fill my energy barrel?
2. Which activities, situations, events etc. empty my energy barrel?
3. What measures can I take to strengthen my energy balance in the long term and permanently? Name the first small concrete steps.

4 When does my energy barrel fill up and when does it empty?

The participants write in bullet points on the left-hand side of the energy barrel what gives them energy. On the right-hand side, they write down what drains their energy.

The seminar leader has previously drawn two arrows pointing in and out of the energy barrel. The participants can write down their aspects one after the other, or they can stand together in front of the metaplan wall or flipchart and write down their thoughts individually.

If there are more than eight participants, we recommend using a second flipchart and working in groups. Ideas for measures that contribute to the long-term strengthening of the energy balance can be recorded under the barrel or on a separate piece of paper.

5 What influence do I/my team have on things that draw energy?

In the course of the seminar, the seminar leader refers to the aspects that have been compiled here at appropriate points. There is also the opportunity to look at which of the things that draw energy the individual or the group has any influence on at all.

It is helpful to differentiate: Where is my sphere of influence? Where should and can I get support? Things that I cannot influence should not absorb my energy.