Overview
A score drop is information. It's not an emergency, and it's not evidence of failure. This guide covers how to interpret a drop, when to act, and what the wrong response looks like.
Don't respond immediately
A single week of low results is almost always noise. The end of a difficult sprint, a piece of news that landed on the Thursday before the check-in went out, someone returning from leave to an inbox full of problems. Any of these can move the score without reflecting anything structural.
Wait for a second data point before changing anything. Two consecutive weeks below your usual baseline is a signal. One week is a blip. Treating a blip like a crisis is its own problem: it signals to the team that you watch the numbers closely enough to react immediately, which changes how honestly people respond. The check-in loses its character as a low-stakes, private signal.
This is harder than it sounds when you're a manager who cares. The urge to act is genuine. But a proportionate response matters as much as a responsive one.
Understand what you're looking at
Before you do anything, read the comments. A score of 62% with detailed comments is a much easier problem than a score of 62% with nothing. Comments point you toward something. An unexplained drop asks you to guess.
Look at when the drop started and what was happening at the same time. Was there a restructure? A departure? A change in workload or scope? A specific conversation or meeting that might have shifted the mood? Context doesn't excuse the result, but it helps you understand whether you're dealing with a specific incident or a slow-building pattern.
A sudden drop from a healthy baseline is usually responding to something specific. A slow decline over eight to ten weeks is usually systemic: workload, role clarity, trust, or something about the working environment that's been building for a while. They call for different responses.
Respond proportionately
For a sudden drop: acknowledge it quickly and specifically. 'The last couple of weeks have been challenging. I want to make sure we're talking about what's making it hard.' You don't need to reference Relay or the score. You need to open the conversation.
For a slow decline: slow declines usually require structural change, not just a conversation. Acknowledge the pattern first, then be honest about what you're doing differently. 'I've noticed the team has felt less energised over the last couple of months. I've been thinking about why, and I want to make some changes to how we're running things.' Then name the specific change.
Don't make promises you can't keep. A manager who responds to a drop by announcing sweeping changes and then delivers nothing has done more damage than if they'd said nothing. Small, specific, and delivered is better than broad, ambitious, and forgotten.
What not to do
Don't call a meeting specifically to discuss 'the results'. That turns the check-in into a performance review and puts people in the position of defending something they said anonymously. The anonymity only works if you protect it.
Don't try to deduce who said what. Even if you think you know, acting on that assumption breaks the trust the whole system depends on. The comments are representative, not attributed. Treat them that way.
Don't explain away the result before acknowledging it. 'I know scores were low but it was a really tough week for everyone' tells your team that you read what they said and found a reason it doesn't count. Acknowledge first. Context second, if at all.
A drop in scores followed by a direct, honest response is one of the most trust-building things that can happen in a team. The people who answered honestly took a small risk. Showing them it was worth taking tells them it's safe to keep doing it.