1. The Wisdom of Collectives: 20 Years of Research and Progress
Eduardo Salas, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
&
Institute for Simulation & Training
University of Central Florida

2. Take Away Messages…
We have a science of team performance & team training…LEARN ABOUT IT!
We have a set of tips, guidelines and principles for enhancing teamwork & team leadership…USE & APPLY THEM!
We know that teamwork & team leadership promotes organizational effectiveness…WHEN MANAGED APPROPRIATELY.
TRY IT & IT HELPS ORGANIZATIONS!

3. Outline of Presentation
Why are collectives still important in organizations?
Why do we still conduct research?
What is the state of the science?
What progress have we made?
What do we know about team performance?
What can de done to foster effective team performance?
Tips
Conclusions

4. Some Definitions Teams… Collectives Task interdependence
Distributed expertise and roles
Hierarchically Organized
Common goal
Collectives
Crews, groups, teams, units, and networks

5. Why the Importance of Collectives?
The Military…
Persian Gulf incidents; Iraq; Afghanistan; Kosovo
Over $120 million and 50 years of investment in R & D
All services
Focus on:
Command and control
Distributed and expert decision making
Team performance and training
Crew, groups, teams and units
Some success…Data Encouraging! (Salas & Cannon-Bowers, 1998)

6. Why the Importance of Collectives?
The Aviation Community…
60-80% of mishaps and accidents
20 year investment in teamwork and safety
Crew resource management (5 generations)
Threat and error management
Focus on:
Flight deck (and beyond)
Communication, teamwork and decision making
Minimize errors; safety
Implementing CRM training
Commercial
Military (active and reserve)
Some success…Data Encouraging! (Salas et al., 2001)

7. Why the Importance of Collectives?
Corporate America…
Keep competitive advantage
Movement toward team-based systems
80% of individuals report belonging organizational teams (Fiore et al., 2001)
Believe teams are better than individuals
Jobs are more complex, difficult and dynamic
Unknown success (Sundstrom, 1999)

8. Why the Importance of Collectives?
The Medical Community…
Human error 8th leading cause of deaths
Programs should "establish interdisciplinary team training programs, such as simulation, that incorporate proven methods for team management." (IOM, 1999, p. 135)
Beginning to invest
DoD TRICARE
Teamwork in OR, ICU and ER
Education & Training

9. Why the Importance of Collectives?
The Emergency Management Community…
9/11 tragedy
Focus on:
“Teams of Teams”
Communication, coordination, and synchronization
Crisis management
Multi-agency culture clashes
Performance and decision making under stress

10. Why the Importance of Collectives?
High Reliability Organizations…
Nuclear power plants
NASA’s Mission Management Team (Space Shuttle program)
Health care systems
Focus on:
Situation awareness (individual and team)
Vigilance
Redundancy of systems
“Creating a safety culture”
“Creating a learning culture”

11. Why the Importance of Collectives?
The Sports World…
Coaches
Collegiate and professional
Focus on:
Motivation
Composition
Rewards
Personalities (egos)
Team building and development
“Creating theories of teamwork”

12. Why Research Continues?
Despite the interest, importance, investment and research…
Teamwork, team performance, collaboration, cooperation…
Very elusive; difficult to manage & compose teams
“We want, need and value”
What is it?
How do we get it?
How do we develop it?
What do we know already?

13. What is the State of Science?
How Do We Turn a Team of
Experts into an Expert Team?

14. What is the State of the Science?
Theoretically-driven
“Nothing more practical then a good theory.” (Lewin, 1951).
Studying real teams; performing real tasks
“Teams in the Wild”
Simulations
Experts as participants

15. What is the State of the Science?
Complex environments
Time pressure
Severe consequences for error
Ill-defined problems
No right answer (sometimes)
Information overload

16. What is the State of the Science?
From the board room to the floor shop
From the flight deck to the ground support teams
Thousands of teams!

17. What Comprises Team Performance?
Cognitions
Behaviors
Attitudes
Knowledge
Skills
Affect
“Think”
“Do”
“Feel”

18. Knowledge Requirements in Teams
Shared Task Models; Cue/Strategy Associations; Situation Assessment
Teammate Characteristics; Familiarity
Knowledge of Team Mission; Objectives; Norms; Resources
Roles and expectations
Individual-task proficiency

19. Skill Requirements in Teams
Mutual performance monitoring
Supporting/Back-up behavior
Adaptability
Team leadership
Task-related assertiveness
Conflict resolution
Closed-loop communication

20. Attitude Requirements in Teams
Collective efficacy
Shared vision
Team cohesion
Mutual trust
Collective/team orientation
Value of teamwork

21. The “Big 5” Teamwork Dimensions
Mutual
Trust
Shared Mental
Models
Closed Loop
Communication
Team Leadership
Team Orientation
Mutual Performance Monitoring
Back-Up
Behavior
Adaptability
THE CORE

22. The Wisdom of Collectives

23. The Wisdom of Collectives…What They Do Best!
They hold shared mental models
…have members who anticipate each other.
…can coordinate without the need to communicate overtly.
…know when explicit communication is best
…know where to look for expertise….position ≠ expertise.

24. The Wisdom of Collectives…What They Do Best!
They optimize resources
…are self correcting.
…compensate for each other.
…reallocate functions.
…learn from each task cycle
They have clear roles and responsibilities
…manage expectations
…have members who understand each others’ roles and how they fit together.
…ensure team member roles are clear but not overly rigid.

25. The Wisdom of Collectives…What They Do Best!
They have a clear, valued and shared vision
…have a clear common purpose.
…have an engaging purpose
…have a leader who promotes this vision at the appropriate level of detail.

26. The Wisdom of Collectives…What They Do Best!
They have strong team leadership
…are led by someone with good leadership skills and not just technical competence.
…have team members who believe the leaders cares about them.
…provides situation updates.
…fosters teamwork, coordination and cooperation
…self-correct first
…models the behaviors he/she desires

27. The Wisdom of Collectives…What They Do Best!
They have strong team leadership (con’t)
…flexible in communication style
…creates an enabling performance environment
…knows when to intervene (in terms of task cycle)
…spends time on both task and developmental leadership actions
…promotes shared leadership functions depending on ability and situation

28. The Wisdom of Collectives…What They Do Best!
They engage in a cycle (a discipline) of:
…regularly provide feedback to each other, both individually and as a team (“de-brief”).
…establish and revise team goals and plans.
…differentiate between higher and lower priorities.
…have mechanisms for anticipating and reviewing issues/problems of members.
…periodically diagnose team "effectiveness”, including its results, its processes, and its vitality (morale, retention, energy).

29. The Wisdom of Collectives…What They Do Best!
They develop a strong sense of “collective”—trust, teamness, confidence
…manage conflict well-team members confront each other effectively.
…have a strong sense of team orientation.
…trust other team members’ “intentions”.
…strongly believe in the team’s collective ability to succeed.
…develop collective efficacy.
…have a high degree of psychological safety

30. The Wisdom of Collectives…What They Do Best!
They create mechanisms to cooperate (motivation) and coordinate (interaction).
…identify teamwork and task work requirements.
…ensure that, through staffing and/or development, the team possesses the right mix of competencies.
…consciously integrate new team members.
…distribute and assign work thoughtfully.
…examine and adjust the team’s physical workplace to optimize communication and coordination.

31. The Wisdom of Collectives…What They Do Best!
They manage and optimize performance outcomes
…communicate often "enough”. Ensure that fellow team members have the information they need to be able to contribute.
…use closed-loop communication.
…learn from each performance outcome.
…continually strive to learn.

32. How Do You Promote Team Effectiveness?
Compose the team membership-selection
Modify team tasks, workflow, structure
Enhance individual team member capabilities
Build team competencies (KSAs)
Team training
Improve team interactions/processes

33. Change Team Membership (Selection/Staffing)
Select team members for needed competencies
Personality tests
Simulations
Situational judgment tests (SJT’s)

34. Change Team Membership (Selection/Staffing) (con’t.)
Select team leaders
Simulations
SJT’s
AC’s
Scoreable structured interviews
Not much research!

35. Change Team Membership (Selection/Staffing)
Tips:
Use behavioral-based interviews
Select for collective-oriented & adaptive members
Triangulate assessment with a multimethod approach
Conscientiousness is important for routine performance.
Openness to experience is important for adaptive performance.
Can Train!!

36. Build Individual Team Member Capabilities
Individual taskwork training
Tips:
Ensure team members know their job
Provide detailed, timely and diagnostic feedback
Ensure members know how their jobs intersects with team members

37. Build Individual Team Member Capabilities
Goal setting/performance management
Tips:
Set performance goals that are hard, challenging and achievable
Set goals at the team-level as well as individual-level
Provide feedback on goals
Set learning goals early in development, performance goals later
On the job training
Guide the instruction…use learning outcomes
Show task interdependencies
Provide diagnostic (detailed) feedback…use checklists
Highlight the coordination demands

38. Build Individual Team Member Capabilities
Coaching/mentoring
Tips:
Focus on team effort (motivation)
Help develop performance strategies
Increase knowledge and skill competencies
Coaching functions will vary thru the team task-cycle
Address team processes (moment-to-moment behaviors and actions)

39. Build Individual Team Member Capabilities
Team leader training
Tips:
Train team leaders to…
Set expectations
Clarify roles
Provide situation updates
Team leaders must…
…initiate self-correction
…solicit ideas and observations from team members
…seek out opportunities to reinforce effective teamwork
…request/accept feedback on own performance

40. Build Individual Team Member Capabilities
Team leader training
Tips (cont):
Team leaders must…
…provide behavior-oriented rather than person-oriented feedback
...provide specific solution-oriented feedback
…re-state others’ feedback to make it constructive
…voice satisfaction when improvements are noted

41. Modify Team Tasks, Workflow Structure
Team design/re-design (organization, structure)
Tips: Ask…
Who does what?
Who talks to whom?
Who owns what and who knows what?
What it takes to complete?
Task re-design
Who is responsible for what?
Be careful…

42. Improve Team Interaction/ Processes
Team building
Role clarification
Who does what with whom?
Facilitated process analysis
Self correction
“Replay at the bar”
Team pre-brief/de-brief interventions
Set expectations

43. Build Teamwork Competencies (Team Training)
Team training ≠ team building
Team training = skill based
Team building = role clarification
Strategies
Cross-training (e.g. positional rotation, position clarification training)
Scenario-based training
Team coordination training/CRM
Meta-cognition training
Team self-correction
Stress exposure
Assertiveness
Cultural training

44. Team Training (TT) Tips: TT should… …focus on teamwork, not taskwork
…be based on competency requirements
…be more then just “feel good”
…include a context to practice, assist, diagnose, and learn
…be realistic, sub-relevant
…focus on team-based learning outcomes
…be on going

45. Teamwork Training Works!
Compared with current training, enhanced training resulted in (see Cannon-Bowers & Salas, 1998):
45% Improvement in Mission Performance
33% Improvement in Tactical Decision Making Performance
25% Improvement in Communication Efficiency
10-34% Improvement in Team Coordination
In the aviation environment (Salas et al., 1999)
6-20% Improvement in Teamwork Behaviors

46. Team-Based Organizations Show…
…High levels of productivity (e.g., Cohen & Ledford, 1994)
89% of studies using self-managing teams report increased productivity (Pasmore et al., 1982)
…Quality (e.g., Applebaum & Batt, 1994)
…Safety (e.g., Goodman et al., 1988; Trist et al., 1977)
…Job satisfaction (e.g., Cordery, Mueller, & Smith, 1991)
…Organizational commitment
(e.g., Kirkman & Rosen, 1999)
…Financial performance
8.7% increase in the probability of having financial performance considerably better than the industry average (DeVaro, 2004)

47. The Organization… Tips: Create a climate to foster teamwork
Organizations get the behaviors that they measure and reinforce!
Provide opportunities to practice teamwork skills

48. Conclusions 20 Years of Progress! There is a science!
Useful, practical and validated tools, strategies and principles exist!
Don’t try this at home!

49. Research Sponsors
The views, opinions, and/or findings contained in this presentation are those of the author and should not be construed as an official Department of the Army position, policy, or decision.  This work was supported by funding from the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (Contract #W74V8H-04-C-0025) (COTR: Gerald Goodwin).

50. Thank you