Knowing Teams Effectiveness

Team Effectiveness Checklist: How efficient are your workplace teams?

Use the below evaluation to determine the effectiveness of your team. Score from 1 (hardly at all) to 5 (greatly).

1. Teams need to be organized around horizontal processes that include different disciplines, functions, or skills.

• To what extent is there one key process that provides the focus for our team?
• To what extend does our team represent all of the functions or disciplines that contribute to this process?
• To what extent is our team composed of the skills needed to maintain and improve this process?
• To what extent does our team have the ability to add or delete competencies?

2. Teams need to have a shared view of what is to be accomplished, a goal toward which all team members
contribute.

• To what extent is there a specific goal (or goals) that our team needs to accomplish?
• To what extent do our goals align with and contribute to the overall business goals and objectives?
• To what extent are our team goals clear and defined in simple terms, so that all team members understand what the team is trying to do?
• To what extent are our team goals shared among all users of the team's output?

3. Teams need to have agreed-upon ways of working that cut across boundaries.

• To what extent has our team defined how it will solve problems, make decisions, and handle conflict in the team?
• To what extent does our team have a process for dealing with poor performance or discipline issues within the team?
• To what extent does our team dedicate time to assessing team members' abilities to work as a team?
• To what extent is our team clear about roles, about who does what to accomplish team goals?
• To what extent do all members of our team feel empowered to voice their opinions so that the team makes better and more informed decisions than individuals acting alone?

4. Teams need shared measures of success and ways of  rewarding achievement.

• To what extent are our team's goals measurable and operational?
• To what extent do all members of our team feel personal responsibility for team results?
• To what extent do team members share in the rewards earned by our  team?

Scoring:

> 65
Your team is most likely a true team and is functioning reasonably well. You might want to focus on the few key scores that were lowest or the category that received the lowest scores, and do some fine tuning.

45-65
There are probably some significant weaknesses in the way your team is functioning. Look to see if the weaknesses are across the board or if  there are targeted categories that need immediate attention.

< 45
Your score was fairly low; you should examine whether your team is really a team and whether team members understand what it means to be a team.