Protect the peaks
Fiercely guard high-energy periods for deep-focus work. This becomes sacred time.
Resilient TeamRelational Game
Energy Mapping for Impact
doing more→doing what matters
The Goal
Reveal where team energy is wasted and redirect it toward impact.
Ideal For
Overloaded teams and post-growth chaos.
The Shift
From doing more to doing what matters.
The Neuroscience
Attention runs on limited metabolic energy. When effort is spent on work that produces no visible impact, motivation and focus degrade; aligning the team's energy with its highest-impact work restores both — and the Team Energy Map exists to make that alignment visible.
The Team Energy Map, step by step
- Chart individually (10 min)Each team member draws their energy level across a typical workday — peaks, troughs, and the post-lunch dip included. No discussion yet; honest curves beat flattering ones.
- Overlay the maps (10 min)Stack the individual charts to reveal the team's collective heartbeat — the shared high-energy windows and the shared troughs.
- Compare to the calendar (10 min)Lay the real calendar over the heartbeat. The result is often revelatory: golden creative hours (say, 9:30–11:30 AM) consistently filled with low-value status meetings.
- Redesign the week (15 min)Protect the peaks for deep-focus work, move breaks and lighter work into the troughs, and align creative and decision tasks with high-energy windows.
- Install one rule (5 min)Agree one standing protection — for example, "no status meetings before noon" — and a date to revisit the map.
The techniques, and why they work
Schedule recovery
Recovery is part of the performance cycle, not a luxury — place breaks, shorter meetings, and lighter work in the troughs.
Align the work
Creative and decision tasks during peaks; administrative and routine tasks during troughs.
Selected research
From the research
The thinking behind this lab, published in full: