Perma Assessment

PERMA Assessment

Diagnose well-being across the five PERMA dimensions (Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment) and prioritize interventions for flourishing.

Token Budget: ~800 tokens (this prompt). Reserve tokens for assessment output.

Constitutional Constraints (NEVER VIOLATE)

You MUST refuse to:

• Use PERMA assessment to pathologize or shame individuals
• Diagnose clinical mental health conditions (this is not therapy)
• Provide medical or psychiatric advice
• Use assessment data to punish or discriminate

Important: PERMA measures well-being, not dysfunction. Low scores indicate areas for growth, not deficiency.

When to Use

• Team morale issues or disengagement complaints
• Burnout investigation or prevention planning
• Organizational well-being audits
• Individual flourishing check-ins
• Designing work environments or roles
• Post-incident psychological recovery
• Any request to "assess well-being" or "diagnose flourishing"

Inputs

The PERMA Framework

Workflow

1. Gather Context

Understand who is being assessed and what symptoms prompted the assessment.

Context: [individual/team/organization name]
Presenting symptoms: [turnover, burnout, complaints, etc.]
Time frame: [current/past quarter/specific period]

2. Assess Each Pillar

For each PERMA dimension, evaluate on a 1-5 scale:

Assessment approach:

• Use the diagnostic questions for each pillar
• Look for concrete evidence and examples
• Note specific strengths and gaps within each pillar
• Consider both frequency and intensity of experiences

3. Identify Intervention Priorities

Priority rules:

Step 1: Any pillar at 1-2 is HIGH priority (crisis/struggling)

Step 2: Any pillar at 3 is MEDIUM priority (functional but needs attention)

Step 3: Pillars at 4-5 are LOW priority (maintain and leverage)

Cross-pillar considerations:

• Relationships often impacts all other pillars
• Meaning sustains people through difficult periods
• Engagement requires strengths being used
• Positive Emotion can be cultivated through specific exercises
• Accomplishment requires clear goals and feedback

4. Generate Recommendations

For each priority pillar, provide:

• Specific diagnosis of what is missing
• 2-3 actionable interventions
• Connection to other pillars if relevant
• Evidence-based practices where applicable

Outputs

PERMA Assessment Report

## PERMA Assessment: {context}

**Date:** {date}
**Assessed by:** {assessor}
**Time Frame:** {period}

---

### Pillar Scores

| Pillar | Score | Status | Key Observation |
|--------|-------|--------|-----------------|
| Positive Emotion | {1-5} | {status} | {brief finding} |
| Engagement | {1-5} | {status} | {brief finding} |
| Relationships | {1-5} | {status} | {brief finding} |
| Meaning | {1-5} | {status} | {brief finding} |
| Accomplishment | {1-5} | {status} | {brief finding} |

**Overall Flourishing Score:** {average}/5

---

### Priority Interventions

#### HIGH Priority: {pillar name}
**Diagnosis:** {what is specifically depleted}
**Interventions:**
1. {specific action}
2. {specific action}
3. {specific action}

#### MEDIUM Priority: {pillar name}
...

---

### Strengths to Leverage

{Pillars scoring 4-5 and how they can support weaker areas}

---

### Recommended Follow-Up

- {timeline for reassessment}
- {specific exercises to assign}
- {metrics to track}

Error Handling

Constraints

• Do not use this analysis as the sole basis for critical decisions
• Do not apply this framework to situations outside its intended scope
• Acknowledge that analysis is based on available data, which may be incomplete
• Honor the complexity of real-world situations that resist simple categorization
• Present findings with appropriate confidence levels
• Recognize the limits of the methodology

Example

Input:

context: DevOps team (6 people)
symptoms: High turnover (3 left in 6 months), remaining team seems disengaged
time_frame: Current state

Output:

**Why this works:**

This example demonstrates the key principles of the skill in action. The approach is effective because:
- It follows the systematic workflow outlined above
- It shows concrete application of the framework
- It produces actionable, specific outputs rather than vague generalizations
- The analysis is grounded in observable details
- The recommendations are prioritized and implementable

**Alternative applications:**

This same approach can be applied to:
- Different contexts within the same domain
- Related but distinct problem types
- Scaled up or down depending on scope
- Combined with complementary analytical frameworks


## PERMA Assessment: DevOps Team

**Date:** 2026-01-28
**Time Frame:** Current state

---

### Pillar Scores

| Pillar | Score | Status | Key Observation |
|--------|-------|--------|-----------------|
| Positive Emotion | 2 | Weak | Constant firefighting, no celebration of wins |
| Engagement | 3 | Moderate | Some flow in complex troubleshooting, but frequent interruptions |
| Relationships | 2 | Weak | Trust eroded by departures; survivors feel abandoned |
| Meaning | 3 | Moderate | Understand importance but disconnected from impact |
| Accomplishment | 2 | Weak | Treadmill feeling; achievements not recognized |

**Overall Flourishing Score:** 2.4/5

---

### Priority Interventions

#### HIGH Priority: Relationships
**Diagnosis:** Team cohesion damaged by turnover; remaining members lack psychological safety.
**Interventions:**
1. Weekly team retrospective focused on support (not blame)
2. Pair rotation to rebuild connections
3. Explicit acknowledgment of team's survival and commitment

#### HIGH Priority: Positive Emotion
**Diagnosis:** Constant crisis mode suppresses positive experiences.
**Interventions:**
1. Three Good Things practice - end each standup with one positive
2. Celebrate incident resolutions, not just post-mortems
3. Protected non-interrupt time for recovery

#### HIGH Priority: Accomplishment
**Diagnosis:** Invisible progress; only failures are noticed.
**Interventions:**
1. Monthly accomplishment review with leadership visibility
2. Track and display reliability metrics improvements
3. Recognition for proactive improvements, not just firefighting

---

### Strengths to Leverage

Engagement (3) shows the team does find flow in complex work. Use challenging technical projects to rebuild other pillars - meaningful projects requiring collaboration.

---

### Recommended Follow-Up

- Reassess in 6 weeks after interventions begin
- Assign Three Good Things exercise immediately
- Track: voluntary turnover, engagement survey scores, incident frequency

Integration

This skill connects to the Martin Seligman expert. After PERMA assessment:

• LOW Positive Emotion: Consider three-good-things-practice
• Pessimistic narratives: Use explanatory-style-analysis and abcde-disputation
• LOW Engagement: Explore strengths-deployment

Success Criteria

Assessment is complete when:

• All five PERMA pillars scored with evidence
• Priorities correctly assigned based on scores
• Specific, actionable interventions provided for each priority
• Strengths identified for leverage
• Follow-up timeline established