Most teams aren't broken. They're stuck between functional and flourishing. The Flourishing Teams Card Game gives coaches and leaders a practical, research-grounded tool to close that gap: 72 cards representing real team behaviors across 12 dimensions of team health, sorted into three bands of Failing, Functional, and Flourishing.
Each card names a real team behavior or dynamic. The 12 Flourishing Markers are Accountability, Agility, Alignment, Collaboration, Communication, Compassion, Connectedness, Empowerment, Gratitude, Meaning, Positive Energy, and Safety. The three bands give teams a shared language for honest conversation without blame, and a clear picture of where they are as a system.
In practice, each team member works quietly through their own deck, selecting the cards that most accurately reflect their experience across the 12 dimensions. Then each person shares and explains their selections with the group.
The exercise surfaces honest, diverse perspectives quickly, and the cards do work that direct questioning often can't: they give people a way to name hard things through a neutral object. Psychological safety builds naturally because the conversation is about the cards on the table, not accusations across it.
From there, teams identify where they stand and commit to one small, specific change that moves them forward. The shared language carries beyond the session itself, giving team agreements, midpoint check-ins, and final debriefs a common foundation to build on. We use the cards this way inside executive education programs, leadership cohorts, and intact team engagements, and participants leave with more than a stronger team: they leave with a model they can apply to every team they join or lead.
Developed by Amy Young, Shahnaz Broucek, Lisa Morgan, and Michelle Davis, the Flourishing Teams model builds on the Flourishing Organizations Framework, co-created by Drs. Amy Young (Ross School of Business, University of Michigan) and Kim Garver (Radiology, Michigan Medicine), and rooted in Dr. Kim Cameron's Positively Energizing Leadership model and more than twenty years of positive organizational scholarship.
The framework was put to the test during the COVID-19 crisis, where it produced statistically significant improvements in engagement, satisfaction, burnout, and intent to leave, even among burned-out frontline staff who initially resisted the approach. The secret is a dual focus: remove what drains (moving from Failing to Functional) and intentionally cultivate what energizes (moving from Functional to Flourishing). Both moves together create an amplifying effect that neither achieves alone.
The included Coach Guide walks you through four facilitation formats, so you can lead with confidence from day one:
The LACES conversation model (Listen, Acknowledge, Clarify, Explore, Support) and the WHAT / SO WHAT / NOW WHAT reflection structure are embedded throughout, keeping every session coherent, productive, and forward-moving.
72 high-quality cards in a handmade 5x7 burlap bag, plus the detailed Coach Guide. Portable, professional, and ready to use with executive coaching clients, leadership teams, HR and OD engagements, or team retreats. No expensive proprietary systems or platform subscriptions required.
The cards are also available digitally as the Flourishing Teams assessment, complete with detailed reports for Facilitators, Leaders, and Team Members. For organizations and leadership programs, we offer custom-branded decks: a unique, lasting tool leaders can put to work with their teams for years to come. Contact us to see sample reports or discuss a branded deck for your program.
Executive coaches, ICF-certified team coaches, leadership facilitators, organizational development professionals, and HR leaders who want a lightweight, portable diagnostic that gets teams talking honestly and moving forward.
72 cards. 12 dimensions. One burlap bag. Unlimited conversations.