Team Science Toolbox

• Team assembly
  • Searching for, identifying and selecting members for a team
• Team composition
  • Selecting the right team members, the right number and the right combination of team members based on taskwork and teamwork competencies

See all team formation tools here

• Kick-off meetings
  • First time a team meets (in-person or virtually); used to set the stage for future team interactions
• Icebreakers
  • Activities that help team members get to know and feel comfortable with each other
• Team ground rules
  • The parameters set and agreed upon by team members governing how meetings are conducted, how expectations and goals are communicated and how team members are expected to behave
• Team goal-setting and goal evaluation
  • Team goal setting clarifies team objectives, purposes and what constitutes meaningful collective outcomes for the group
  • Team goal evaluation helps teams track progress on goals and determine whether and when team objectives have been accomplished
• Team charters
  • Written document developed and agreed upon by team members that helps to jump-start a team by establishing how decisions will be made in the team, who will lead, how meetings will be conducted, expectations for member contributions, etc.

See all team launch tools here

Motivational/Affective/Attitude-Based Competencies

• Cohesion
  • The extent to which members bond or strongly connect with each other and with the purpose of the team
• Psychological safety
  • The shared expectation that members can ask questions, share ideas, be vulnerable and make mistakes without the fear of being punished or humiliated
• Conflict resolution
  • The process by which a peaceful ending occurs between two or more individuals experiencing disagreement

Behavioral/Skill-Based Competencies

• Vertical leadership
  • Provides direction and support to enable team members to successfully accomplish team goals
• Shared leadership
  • Rather than relying on one person as in traditional, vertical leadership models, members may share or rotate leadership responsibilities
• Team-building
  • Involves a set of strategies designed to help team members build camaraderie, develop more effective interpersonal interactions and form a cohesive team
• Team meetings
  • Formal or informal blocks of time set aside to discuss and evaluate team progress
• Team debriefs
  • Structured learning experiences that encourage team members to reflect on recent action that resulted in success or failure

See all team maturation tools here

• Composite team measures
  • Team STEPPS assessment
    • A publicly available 55-item instrument assessing team foundations, team functioning, team performance, team skills, team leadership, team climate and team identity
  • Team diagnostic survey (Wageman, Hackman, & Lehman, 2005)
    • measures several of the enabling conditions underlying team success, including whether the task requires a team and whether the team has a compelling direction, a well-designed team structure, a supportive context and expert coaching
• Team composition measures
  • Group preferences (Karau & Elsaid, 2009)
    • Five-item measure of individual differences in beliefs about groups
  • Team Role Experience and Orientation scale (Mathieu, Tannenbaum, Kukenberger, Donsbach, & Alliger, 2015)
    • 48-items measuring members’ propensities to occupy different team roles, including organizer, doer, challenger, innovator, team builder and connector
  • Multidimensional Perceived Person-Group Fit scale (Li, Kristof-Brown, & Nielsen, 2019)
    • Assesses the fit between individuals and the group on several dimensions
• Team emergent state measures
  • Team cohesion (Mathieu, Kukenberger, D’Innocenzo, & Reilly, 2015)
    • Measures interpersonal and task-oriented cohesion
  • Workload sharing (Campion, Medsker and Higgs, 1993)
  • Perceived Collective Efficacy scale
    • Measures members’ perceptions of the group’s ability to succeed
  • Team psychological safety (Edmondson, 1999)
  • Team learning behavior (Edmondson, 1999)
  • Task interdependence (Van Der Vegt, Emans, & Van De Vliert, 2000)
• Team process measures
  • Coordination difficulties scale (Janicik & Bartel, 2003)
  • Conflict scales (Jehn & Mannix, 2001)
    • Task, relationship and process conflict
  • Temporal conflict (Mohammed, Alipour, Martinez, Livert, & Fitzgerald, 2017)
  • Conflict management (Tekleab, Quigley, & Tesluk, 2009)
  • Team processes (Mathieu, Luciano, D’Innocenzo, Klock, & LePine (2020)
    • Measures three types of team processes:
      • Transition processes – teams engage in evaluation and planning activities
      • Action processes – teams perform activities that directly contribute to goal attainment
      • Interpersonal processes – teams foster motivation, manage emotions and resolve conflict
• Team outcomes
  • Team viability (Tekleab, Quigley and Tesluk, 2009)
  • Team commitment (Van Der Vegt, Emans and Van De Vliert, 2000)
  • Team satisfaction (Tekleab, Quigley and Tesluk, 2009)
  • Team performance (Edmondson, 1999)
  • Comprehensive assessment of team member effectiveness (Ohland, Loughry, Woehr, Bullard, Felder, Finelli, Layton, Pomeranz and Schmucker, 2012)
    • This instrument is designed for self- and peer-evaluations of team members in five areas: contributing to the team’s work, interacting with teammates, keeping the team on track, expecting quality, and having relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs)

See all team assessment tools here