Many organizations struggle to know if their teams are effective. Others, who are just starting teams or have had work teams for a while, wonder what kind of new or follow-up training they should provide to teams to ensure effectiveness. Both needs can be met by developing an equipment evaluation method.
Each team must participate separately in the evaluation process and it would be better if each individual member’s participation was anonymous so that members do not feel pressured to rate everything as if it is going well. Anonymity will help honesty in the process. A process without honesty will not produce valuable information or help achieve the desired results.
The easiest and fastest method for individual evaluations is a form-based survey. A standard form will provide a way to continually monitor equipment needs on a quarterly basis. A good standard assessment will also make it easier to compare equipment, since all equipment will be measured the same for training purposes. A good team evaluation form will ask questions about team roles, meetings, and group performance with numbered ratings to determine training needs. An example rating might be 1 for the team that always does this, 2 for often, 3 for sometimes, 4 for occasionally, and 5 for never. For individual team growth, the evaluation form can also include space for team type-specific questions, such as project completion issues or team attitudes and behavior.
Asking questions about the equipment and assigning ranks will help determine if additional training is needed. Using the example ratings above, when the team rates a question with a very high number, this would indicate an immediate training need in this area. If the ratings are very low numbers, additional training may not be needed or may wait until the team decides it is necessary. For an average ranking, the team needs some training, but the need is not as immediate unless the ranking changes.
What type of training is necessary based on the evaluation rankings? If the ranks are associated with roles, the training to offer may include soft skills such as leadership, methods to encourage participation, conflict resolution, time management, team stages and roles, communication, giving and receiving performance feedback, interpersonal skills, personality differences, diversity or education on empowerment with authority and responsibility. Technical skills that may be required for specific members performing certain functions include taking minutes or writing progress reports, computer applications, organization, quality, and statistics. For meetings, the highest rank should indicate that the team needs training in effective meetings, decision-making, or idea generation and problem-solving techniques.
Questions related to group performance could indicate the need for a facilitated process to help develop the group’s purpose or mission statement and goal setting. Or training in time management, project planning/management, and possibly detailed instructions on procedures, process flow analysis, or policies may be required. If specific equipment category questions were added, the resulting numbers for those questions will determine the specialized training needed. For example, an information technology project team may need training in project management, or some members may need training in a specific application or computer language. Whereas a change agent team or problem solving team may need change management techniques, customer service, domain analysis or problem solving.
After team members have taken the training and after a few months have passed. Reassess the team to determine if the training is being used effectively or if a refresher is needed. Keeping team performance evaluated and training members are keys to the success and effectiveness of teams in an organization.