What is the Team Effectiveness Assessment?
The Team Effectiveness Assessment asks your team to rate seven areas: Team Collaboration, Differentiation, Performance Metrics, Data Gathering, Team Dynamics, Needs Assessment and Psychological Safety. Some look at how you work together day to day. Others ask whether you measure your performance at all, and whether you know what the team needs to do better. Each person rates on a simple three-point scale, so it's quick to run in a retrospective or an offsite. The results show where people agree the team is strong and where views split, and the split is where to start the conversation. Pick one or two of the lowest scores and agree on a change before the next check.
Dimensions
Team Effectiveness Factors
Explore the collaboration, dynamics, and measurement practices that shape how effectively your team performs together.
Team Collaboration
Team collaboration and addressing team dynamics are critical for success in any organization.
- Rarely collaborate
- Sometimes collaborate
- Always collaborate
Differentiation
Workgroups are less reliant on each other, while teams rely on strong collaboration for project success.
- Unclear distinction
- Partial clarity
- Clear distinction
Performance Metrics
Effective teams can be assessed using various evaluations and metrics, while recognizing differing perspectives on what makes a team effective.
- No clear metrics
- Some metrics
- Robust metrics
Data Gathering
Collecting and analyzing data to assess team effectiveness combines both quantitative and qualitative methods.
- Little data gathered
- Some data gathered
- Rich data gathered
Team Dynamics
Effective team dynamics emerge from examining critical factors and acknowledging that team size and consensus-based decisions have limited impact.
- Poor dynamics
- Mixed dynamics
- Healthy dynamics
Needs Assessment
Gauging our team's needs through surveys and valuable discussions with our leaders helps us improve.
- Needs unknown
- Partly understood
- Needs well understood
Psychological Safety
I feel confident sharing my ideas within the team, unafraid of making mistakes as I see them as opportunities for learning, and I'm comfortable asking questions openly.
- Feel unsafe
- Somewhat safe
- Feel very safe
When to use this health check
- Before setting improvement goals, to get a baseline of how well your team works together.
- In a retrospective or offsite, to start an honest conversation about collaboration and team dynamics.
- After a restructure or a project kickoff, to agree on roles, needs and expectations.
- Every few months, to track changes in psychological safety and collaboration.
Tips & tricks
- Keep it anonymous so people answer candidly, especially about psychological safety.
- Compare results over time, or across teams, to see where to put your effort.
- Talk through the ratings together, so the whole team interprets the numbers and not only the manager.
- Focus on one or two of the lowest-scoring areas each round so the actions stay achievable.