Students in higher education are continuously asked to collaborate, which is something that doesn’t always go well without proper guidance. Therefore, more support is needed for teams to collaborate effectively. This project introduced and tested the Team Diagnostic Survey (TDS), a tool that helps team coaches gain insight into team functioning and proposes evidence-based ways to improve team effectiveness in academic settings.

Background information

In current educational practices, little attention is paid to how students collaborate, and they never actually learn to collaborate effectively. The Team Diagnostic Survey (TDS) is a well-validated instrument that can help students work together better. This is because the TDS does not only measure team functioning in terms of outcomes, but also measures causes for team functioning. These insights help students to steer their collaboration in the right direction.

Project description 

This project involved 20 student teams from a psychology course at Utrecht University. Teams were randomly assigned to either a control group (that received team coaching based on their own questions and needs) and an experimental group (that received team coaching based on the TDS). All students completed a questionnaire at two points in time that aimed to measure cohesion, identification, coordination and team effectiveness. Team performance was measured by the grade assigned to the team assignment by the supervisor. 

Aims

This project aimed to investigate whether the use of team coaching based on the Team Diagnostic Survey is beneficial for the functioning of student teams and for the results achieved. 

Results & Conclusion

Although this project did not provide proof of the TDS’s effectiveness, the group that received team coaching based on the TDS scored higher of all four measures (cohesion, identification, collaboration and team effectiveness) on the post-test and scored a higher final grade. Despite some methodological limitations, such as the small number of student teams, the patterns found are still promising for future research on the impact of team coaching. 

References

• Hackman, J.R. (2002). Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances. Harvard Business Review Press.
• Wageman, R., Hackman, J. R., & Lehman, E. (2005). Team diagnostic survey: Development of an instrument. The journal of applied behavioral science, 41(4), 373-398. 
• Wageman, R., & Lowe, K. (2019). Designing, launching, and coaching teams: The 60–30–10 Rule and its implications for team coaching. In The Practitioner’s Handbook of Team Coaching (pp. 121-137). Routledge.

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