Characteristics of an Expert Team

Salas, Rosen, Burke, Goodwin, and Fiore (2006) have defined “…an expert team as a set of interdependent team members, each of whom possesses unique and expert-level knowledge, skills, and experience related to task performance, and who adapt, coordinate, and cooperate as a team, thereby producing sustainable, and repeatable team functioning at superior or at least near-optimal levels of performance” (p. 440).

Rosen, Salas, Lyons, and Fiore (2008), adapting a table from Salas, et al. (2006), presented a list that characterizes members of expert teams.  They (pp. 221-222):

1. Develop shared mental models.
   • They anticipate each other’s needs and actions.
   • They can communicate implicitly.
   • They interpret cues in a complimentary manner.
2. Learn and adapt.
   • They self-correct.
   • They learn from past decision-making episodes.
   • They adapt coordinating processes to dynamic environments.
   • They compensate for each other.
3. Maintain clear roles and responsibilities.
   • They manage expectations.
   • They understand each other’s roles and how they fit together.
   • They maintain clarity of roles while maintaining flexibility.
4. Possess clear, valued, and shared vision.
   • They develop their goals with a shared sense of purpose.
   • They guide their decisions with a common set of values.
5. Develop a cycle of pre-brief -> performance -> debrief.
   • They regularly provide individual and team level feedback to one another.
   • They establish and revise team goals and plans.
   • They dynamically set priorities.
   • They anticipate and review issues/problems of members.
   • They periodically diagnose team decision making “effectiveness,” including its results, and its processes.
6. Are led by strong team leaders.
   • They are led by someone with good leadership skills and not just technical competence.
   • They believe the leaders care about them.
   • Leaders of expert teams provide situation updates.
   • Leaders of expert teams foster teamwork, coordination, and cooperation.
   • Leaders of expert teams self-correct first.
7. Have a strong sense of “collective,” trust, teamness, and confidence.
   • They manage conflict well; they confront each other effectively.
   • They have a strong sense of team orientation.
   • They trust other team members’ “intentions.”
   • They strongly believe in the team’s collective ability to succeed.
8. Cooperate and coordinate.
   • They identify teamwork and task work requirements.
   • They ensure that, through staffing and/or development, the team possesses the right mix of competencies.
   • They consciously integrate new team members.
   • They distribute and assign work thoughtfully.
   • They examine and adjust the team’s physical workplace to optimize communication and coordination.

References

Rosen, M.A., Salas, E., Lyons, R., & Fiore, S.M. (2008). Expertise and naturalistic decision making in organizations: Mechanisms of effective decision making. In G.P. Hodgkinson & W.H. Starbuck (Eds.), The oxford handbook of organizational decision making (pp. 211-230). New York: Oxford University Press.

Salas, E., Rosen, M. A., Burke, C. S., Goodwin, G. F., & Fiore, S. (2006). The making of a dream team: When expert teams do best. In K. A. Ericsson, N. Charness, P. J. Feltovich & R. R. Hoffman (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (pp. 439-453). New York: Cambridge University Press.