The Power of the 6-Box Grid

Map Your Team to Spot the Gaps and Overlaps

Teams rarely break down because someone’s doing a terrible job. More often, it’s because of invisible tensions—different assumptions about how we work, how fast we move, and what we’re actually trying to achieve.

Creative Compass isn’t meant for just self-assessment, but team building as well. One of the easiest ways to apply it with your team is through the 6-Box Grid—a quick visual that reveals how your team leans across the three spectrums of Task, Time, and Team.

TASK = what OR how

Do you tend to prioritize the product or the process?

TIME = pace OR urgency

Do you approach projects more like a marathon or a sprint?

TEAM = autonomy OR collaboration

How involved do you want others in your creative process?

What makes the 6-box grid so helpful?  It's like a mirror for you to quickly spot your team's gaps and overlaps—the unspoken wiring behind your whole team’s dynamics. Here’s how it works.

Let’s say we've got a 10-year-old organization that's taken their 3-person leadership team through this tool, and their map is: 1) Jennifer is a Forger (what + urgency + autonomy) 2) Taylor is a Conductor (how + urgency + collaboration) 3) Kevin is an Engineer (how + urgency + autonomy)

Map their results into the framework and tally them up, here’s what we see:

• WHAT: 1

• HOW: 2

• PACE: 0

• URGENCY: 3

• AUTONOMY: 2

• COLLABORATION: 1

Boom. There it is.

This team is:

• Slightly imbalanced toward How, so they’re likely spending a lot of effort optimizing systems, roles, and processes—all the while, the big-picture vision may be drowning in details.

• Fully tilted toward Urgency, which may sound great at first, especially in a startup, but there's no sustainability here—as if every decision is being made with the fire alarm going off. No breathing room. No built-in brakes. Just go, go, go, go, gone.

• Only one Collaborator, so unless there's regular conversation and built-in checkpoints, that collaborator will likely end up looking elsewhere for a team rather than sticking around a bunch of siloed individuals each running their own direction.

They don’t need a personality transplant; they needed a reframe. (And, likely, an eventual new hire to bring some pace and collaboration into the room like a Weaver or Mender.)

Mapping your team like this can drastically shift the culture of your team:

• It names the friction without blaming the people.

• It helps you spot what’s missing, and what might be over-represented.

• It provides shared language for when you’re moving too fast, isolating in silos, or failing to dream.

It’s not about changing who’s at the table, but how you see what everyone brings to it (and what they don’t).

Try It: Map Your Own Team 

6-box grid - creative compass.pdf

Download PDF • 26KB

Here's the downloadable worksheet you can use to map your team. It works great in an offsite, a 1-on-1, or staff meeting. All you need is your team’s archetypes.

Want to discover your Creative Compass type? Take our free survey (and share it!) to take your next step in stronger self-awareness and better team chemistry. And if you're curious about doing this with your team, company, or creative collective, I’d love to explore that with you. Contact me, and let’s talk about a pilot workshop or custom cohort sometime.