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Team Effectiveness Checklist

By Staff Report

Sep. 3, 2002

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

1.Teams need to be organized around horizontal processes thatinclude different disciplines, functions, or skills.
  Towhat extent is there one key process that provides the focus for our team?
  Towhat extend does our team represent all of the functions or disciplinesthat contribute to this process?
  Towhat extent is our team composed of the skills needed to maintain andimprove this process?
  Towhat extent does our team have the ability to add or delete competencies?
2.Teamsneed to have a shared view of what is to be accomplished, a goal towardwhich all team members contribute.
  Towhat extent is there a specific goal (or goals) that our team needs toaccomplish?
  Towhat extent do our goals align with and contribute to the overall businessgoals and objectives?
  Towhat extent are our team goals clear and defined in simple terms, so thatall team members understand what the team is trying to do?
  Towhat extent are our team goals shared among all users of the team’soutput?
3.Teams need to have agreed-upon ways of working that cut across boundaries.
  Towhat extent has our team defined how it will solve problems, makedecisions, and handle conflict in the team?
  Towhat extent does our team have a process for dealing with poor performanceor discipline issues within the team?
  Towhat extent does our team dedicate time to assessing team members’abilities to work as a team?
  Towhat extent is our team clear about roles, about who does what toaccomplish team goals?
  Towhat extent do all members of our team feel empowered to voice theiropinions so that the team makes better and more informed decisions thanindividuals acting alone?
4.Teams need shared measures of success and ways of rewarding achievement.
  Towhat extent are our team’s goals measurable and operational?
  Towhat extent do all members of our team feel personal responsibility forteam results?
  Towhat extent do team members share in the rewards earned by our team?

Scoring:

> 65
Your team is most likely a true teamand is functioning reasonably well. You might want to focus on the few keyscores that were lowest or the category that received the lowest scores, anddo some fine tuning.
45-65
There are probably some significantweaknesses in the way your team is functioning. Look to see if theweaknesses are across the board or if there are targeted categories thatneed immediate attention.
< 45
Your score was fairly low; youshould examine whether your team is really a team and whether team membersunderstand what it means to be a team.

 


Reprinted with permission from TheBoundaryless Organization by Ron Ashkenas, Copyright 2002 by John Wiley &Sons, Inc.


Workforce Online, March 2002


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