One of the most challenging aspects of team development is measuring results. The promise of any team development or teambuilding effort is that the improvement in how a team works together will result in improvement in the efficiency and quality of what the team does. The Construction Industry Institute (CII) has identified teambuilding as a best practice for the various types of project teams that execute work in the construction industry. CII measures the benefit of an effective team development process as savings in total installed cost (TIC). A key challenge for any team development process is to be able to benchmark the initial status and then track the team development progress of a given team. Since many of the components of an effective team fall into the category often referred to as “soft” skills, quantitative measures can be difficult to obtain. Nevertheless, measurable results are valuable not only to the progress of the team but also to demonstrate to management the return on investment from the team development process. From its many years of experience working with a variety of teams, Stratos, LLC has developed a team effectiveness measurement process with several related team assessment tools. This process has demonstrated its effectiveness with many different types of teams.

Stratos utilizes a combination internal/external team assessment process. This process starts with confidential one-on-one interviews with the team members and key customers of the team. The interview process utilizes a set of questions based on the Stratos Eight Components of Effective Teams but customized to the specific context of the team. The team itself then validates the information gathered from this initial assessment as part of the Stratos team development process. Outputs from this process include the focus areas for the team and accepted metrics to measure team progress. Stratos consultants develop and help the team implement skill development activities for their specific focus areas. Follow-up assessments at regular intervals allow the team to see its own progress. Using this process, Stratos has been able to track the development as well as the impact of changes to teams over a period of years.

Virtual teams and very large project teams present a special assessment challenge. To supplement the interview process, Stratos has designed the Stratos Online Team Effectiveness Assessment Tool. This online tool allows team members in remote locations as well as members of a very large execution team to benefit from the team assessment process. Each online team assessment is customized to the specific needs of a team, but the Stratos online surveying system allows for the economical gathering of large amounts of team input as well as input from members of widely scattered and time-shifted virtual teams. Team information is then captured for use in the rest of the team engagement and development process.