Manual of Me
Great collaboration doesn’t come from better tools. It comes from understanding. The Manual of Me is a practical first step toward achieving that – both internally and externally.
At 3kubik, there is an internal rule that we never formally agreed upon, but which has naturally become part of how we work over the years: We do not recommend ways of working or methods to our clients that we have not at least tested ourselves. It takes time, occasionally costs a few nerves, and sometimes reveals that a method sounds more convincing in theory than it proves to be in practice. But consulting that is not grounded in experience is simply well-researched theory – and that is not enough for us.
The Manual of Me was one of those experiments.
Why We Started
The idea did not emerge from a strategic initiative but from a simple observation: We noticed how quickly we misinterpret the behavior of our colleagues – even us, despite spending our professional lives helping others become more aware of exactly these dynamics.
A practical example: Imagine someone joins a call at five in the morning because they are working from a different time zone. They look tired, do not smile, and seem slightly irritated. It is easy to assume they are bringing a bad mood into the meeting or that they have an unspoken issue with someone in the group.
Most of the time, the reality is far more mundane: they simply hate 5:00 a.m. meetings (and who doesn’t?). Not the people. Not the topic. Just the time.
This is not a 3kubik-specific phenomenon. It is a well-documented concept in psychology known as the Fundamental Attribution Error. We tend to explain other people’s behavior through their personality rather than considering situational factors.
In practice, this means that teams often judge faster than they ask, and interpret faster than they clarify. Over time, this blind spot quietly erodes trust. Collaboration becomes more difficult, yet nobody can quite explain why.
The Manual of Me is an attempt to interrupt that pattern – without launching a major program and without bringing in external facilitators.
What’s Inside
The profile is a mix of personal insights, practical preferences, and occasionally surprisingly deep reflections. Here are a few examples from our own Manual of Me:
- What gives me energy – Three client meetings a day? For some, that is the highlight of the week. For others, it feels like a direct path to exhaustion. Both are perfectly fine – but it helps if we know that about each other.
- What drains my energy – Too many calls, too much context switching, too many small tasks competing for attention. Everyone has different energy drains, and the longer they remain unspoken, the more costly they become.
- Preferred communication styles – Calling me directly? Please don’t. Send a message first, then let’s talk? Much better. Or perhaps exactly the opposite. The more a team understands these preferences, the fewer unnecessary points of friction arise.
- How I prefer to receive feedback – Some people appreciate direct and straightforward conversations. Others need a day to process before discussing something. Some dislike receiving spontaneous feedback squeezed in between meetings.
- How to earn a gold star with me – Favorite tasks, genuine appreciation, humor at the right moment. And, equally important, what tends to have the opposite effect. Both are part of the profile.
- If I were a meme, an animal, or a GIF – It sounds a little silly, and sometimes it is, but it often becomes a surprisingly effective conversation starter.
- A fun fact about me – Because work can include those, too.
The profile also includes questions that go much deeper:
At what times of day am I most productive? What do I need to do my best work? What comes naturally to me, what do I struggle with, and what is the Achilles’ heel I would rather not talk about?
While filling it out, you quickly realize that many of these questions never come up in everyday work. Not because they are unimportant, but because there is rarely space for them.
What We Learned Internally
We introduced the Manual of Me across the 3kubik team and then simply observed what happened.
The most noticeable outcome was that many of the quiet points of friction that had always existed began to fade away. Not because anyone fundamentally changed, but because we stopped automatically misinterpreting each other’s behavior.
When you know that a colleague is simply not at their best early in the morning, you stop taking their brief 7:30 a.m. response personally.
Another thing we noticed was that leadership became more tangible.
When you understand what drains someone’s energy and what motivates them, you can plan tasks, projects, and meetings differently—instead of simply hoping they will somehow have enough energy to get through them. It sounds like common sense, but common sense only works when you actually have the information.
And then there was something that surprised us more than anything else:
In many cases, completing the Manual of Me turned out to be more valuable than the finished document itself.
The questions force a level of reflection that rarely happens in day-to-day work. When was the last time you seriously considered what actually drains your energy at work? Or what conditions enable you to perform at your best?
That is not a wellness exercise.
That is organizational development.
What This Means for Your Team
Teams that believe they know each other well often know surprisingly little about one another—at least not in the ways that truly matter for day-to-day collaboration.
In most cases, the simplest first step is not a large-scale culture initiative. It is the willingness to ask each other a few questions that rarely get asked:
How do you actually work best?
What do you need in order to do great work?
What gives you energy—and what takes it away?
If you would like to try this approach with your own team, or if you are curious about how we can support you along the way, feel free to get in touch.
We’ve also created a practical, ready-to-use Manual of Me template featuring our favorite questions, available as a free download.