Measuring the Strengths of a Team
To thrive in a rapidly changing global environment, organizations must be creative, nimble, adaptable, open-minded and results-oriented. Teams are a key to success. Innovation, flexibility, speed, collective wisdom, collaboration, securing of resources and support—all the things necessary for an organization to thrive in the 21st century—are fostered within an effective team setting. When teams are performing at their best, the organization as a whole will experience greater productivity, employee satisfaction and growth. The team itself will be able to sustain its success—and thus its positive impact—over the long term.
Every organization has teams. They may be long-standing teams drawn into the org chart: an executive team, management team, sales team, marketing team, design team etc. Or they may be project teams with a distinct purpose and time-limited existence. How effective are the teams in your organization? How can you find out?
Sage Portfolio Group uses an online assessment tool, developed by Team Diagnostic International, to measure the state of any team, including alignment of team members, access to resources, and the decision-making process used by the team (‘productivity’ factors) and respect, valuing of diversity, constructive interaction, trust, camaraderie and communication (‘positivity’ factors). Research has shown that productivity and positivity are fundamental predictors of team success. The assessment tool measures the team’s perception of factors that influence productivity and positivity.
The 80 items in the inventory require the participant to assess the functioning of his/her team from the perspective of the whole team, rather than from a more narrow individual perspective. The inventory also includes three open-ended essay-style questions which can be customized for each team. The qualitative data collected through these questions provide important context and a deeper understanding of team functioning.
The assessment provides valuable data for benchmarking and establishing progress and positive change over time. It also provides direction for determining areas of need, intervention and goal-setting, and a tool for allocating scarce resources. In this way, the assessment is an important tool for structuring follow-up. Results are presented in easy-to-understand graphs and charts that enable team members to quickly and visually recognize areas of strength and opportunities for growth.
It is important to note that the assessment is not designed as a one-off. Sage Portfolio Group would never simply administer the assessment and leave the team to determine next steps. Instead, we use the assessment to present a snapshot of the team as it currently stands. Team members then engage with the material, the Team Systems worker from Sage Portfolio Group, and with each other, learning about their team’s system and what it needs to thrive. As Marita Fridjohn, Director of the Centre for Right Relationship near San Francisco and co-creator of the team assessment tool says, “One of the most frequently reported breakthroughs in Team Systems Work is when team members realize that someone on the team speaks not only from her or his own experience, but that he or she is also a voice of the team system.” Completing the team assessment is the first step towards developing the team voice.
For a previous newsletter article on Team Systems Coaching, see the article “Go Team! A look at the philosophy behind team coaching” in the March 2007 edition of The Leading Edge, available here.
