Avanti Role and Climate
Clear roles, good weather: what each role carries, and the conditions it is carried in
The Lens and the Weather
The lens brings each role into shared focus. The weather shows the conditions everyone works in. Clear roles help make good weather, and good weather makes it safe to talk about roles.
Clear roles help make good weather. Good weather makes it safe to talk about roles.
Why Combine Them
Most teams that find things hard are not short of talent or goodwill. More often, people are working hard on slightly different pictures of their roles, in a climate that makes those differences difficult to name. Work falls between roles, or is quietly doubled up. Some people carry more than anyone can see. Conversations that would clear the air feel risky, so they wait, and the weather slowly turns.
Avanti Role Lens and Avanti Team Climate look at two sides of that same experience. Role Lens brings each role into focus through three lenses: the role-holder, their line leader and their colleagues. Team Climate asks every member to read the weather the team works in. Each is useful on its own. Together they show how the shape of roles and the feel of a team influence each other, and they give the team practical ways to improve both at once.
A long line of research supports the connection. Role clarity is one of the most dependable foundations of wellbeing and effectiveness at work, and unclear or conflicting expectations are among the most common sources of strain (Kahn and colleagues, 1964; Rizzo, House and Lirtzman, 1970). Teams with a climate of psychological safety find it easier to talk openly about who does what, which in turn makes roles clearer (Edmondson, 1999). The relationship runs both ways, which is why we look at both together.
What the Combination Reveals
Read together, the two instruments show things that neither shows on its own.
Hidden load
Where role-holders give a demand more time than the role is seen to call for, and the team's Steady breeze is still growing, the combined picture points to work being carried that nobody has named. Naming it is often the quickest way to improve the weather.
Work between roles
The team role map shows demands that sit at the edge of several roles. Where those coincide with a quieter reading of Visibility or Common ground, the team can decide together who holds what.
Why some conversations feel hard
Where the lenses show a wide angle on a role and Shelter is still growing, people may sense a difference without feeling able to name it. The combination gives them a safe structure for doing so.
Where good weather comes from
Signature climate elements often rest on roles that are already in shared focus. Seeing that connection helps a team protect what already works.
A route to the community
Role Lens shows how strongly each role is seen to call for community and lived experience. Horizon shows whether the team can see the difference it makes. Together they show whether community voice is built into roles or left to goodwill.
The Impact
The combined offer is designed for change that people can feel, at every level from the individual role to the communities a team serves.
For each person
A role that they and others understand in the same way, time and energy spent where the role most needs it, and recognition for the parts of their work others had not seen.
For the team
Fewer gaps and overlaps, load that is visible and fairly shared, and a climate in which differences are raised early, before they become friction.
For leaders
A clear picture of what each role in their team carries and of the conditions they are helping to create, with practical steps for both.
For the organisation
Teams that absorb restructures, new duties and new ways of working more smoothly, and the conditions that support wellbeing and retention.
For communities
Community voice and lived experience held clearly within roles rather than left to goodwill, by a team that can see the difference it makes.
How It Runs
| Stage | When | What happens | Who |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brief | Week 0 | A 45 minute team briefing on purpose, confidentiality and how results will be used. | Whole team with Avanti |
| Read the weather | Weeks 1 to 2 | Every member completes Team Climate: 40 statements, about 15 minutes. | All members |
| Bring roles into focus | Weeks 1 to 3 | Each role-holder, their line leader and three to eight colleagues complete Role Lens: 32 statements, about 15 minutes. | Role-holders, leaders, colleagues |
| Personal feedback | Week 4 | A 60 minute conversation with an Avanti coach on each Role Lens report. | Each role-holder |
| Team day | Week 5 | Clear roles, good weather: the team's climate, the team role map, role agreements and a climate forecast. | Whole team, Avanti facilitated |
| Revisit | Six months | A climate re-read and a refresh of each role on a page, to see what has grown. | Whole team |
The team day: Clear roles, good weather
The weather we work in
The team's climate report: signature elements to protect, growing edges to work on, and the range of experience across the team.
Our roles through three lenses
Each person shares their role on a page: where the lenses already agree, and the different angles they want to explore.
The team role map
Core demands side by side: shared ground, work that falls between roles, and where load is gathering.
Role agreements and a forecast
Agreements for each role and a climate forecast: what the weather could be like if the team acts on what it sees.
What Is Included
- A Role Lens report of about 17 pages for each role-holder, with a role on a page and conversation starters.
- A Team Climate report of about 18 pages for every member, with the team's combined weather.
- A Role and Climate team summary: the bridge map completed for the team, the team role map and the climate forecast.
- A facilitated team day and a debrief for the team's leader.
- The option to repeat both instruments, so the team can revisit them and see change over time.
What People Take Away
- 1Describe their own role as they, their leader and their colleagues see it, and agree where it should focus.
- 2Recognise how role clarity and team climate shape each other in their own team.
- 3Name hidden load and work that falls between roles, and share it more fairly.
- 4Hold open, respectful conversations about different views of a role.
- 5Agree practical role agreements and climate commitments, and know how to revisit them.
- 6Place community voice and lived experience clearly within the team's roles.
When to Use It
A new or restructured team
Roles are being drawn afresh and the climate is still forming.
A new leader
A fast, respectful way to understand each role and the conditions the team works in.
After a merger or redesign
Bringing different role traditions and different weather into one shared picture.
A team under pressure
Seeing where load is gathering and what would help the climate steady.
New duties
Building new responsibilities, such as co-production, into roles rather than around them.