6 Questions To Size Up Your Team’s Dynamics

This article was co-authored by Gary Klein, Emily Newsome, Kari Hoy, Wendy Jephson, and Malcolm MacColl.

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In my previous article on cognitive diversity, the differences in how people think about important tasks and activities, I described five dimensions that seem to matter in a workplace:

Dimension 1: Reactions to novel ideas

Dimension 2: ­General mindset or stance (contrarian, trend analyst, disruptor)

Dimension 3: Knowledge and experience

Dimension 4: Preference for working collaboratively or independently

Dimension 5: Tolerance for uncertainty

These five dimensions seem to make a difference. You want cognitive diversity on some of the dimensions (reactions to novel ideas, general mindset, knowledge, and experience). However, different preferences for working collaboratively or independently can be counter-productive. So can differences in how well people tolerate uncertainty—when is it time to make a decision versus when do you need to gather more information.

But how can a leader determine where each team member stands on these dimensions? Trying to arrange for sufficient cognitive diversity only makes sense if you can tell where the team members stack up. Ditto for trying to reduce cognitive diversity on dimensions 4 and 5.

That’s why my colleagues and I devised a simple test. It takes almost no time to complete. We have not tried to validate it, so we cannot and should not make any claims. It’s just a starting point, maybe just a way to get a conversation going. However, I think it has some face validity, and it might be useful. The self-test consists of six questions—someone taking the test reads each question separately and gauges his or her emotional reaction.

Self-Test for Cognitive Diversity

What is your emotional reaction when someone in a meeting makes the following statement:

1. “Now, this may sound strange to you, but …” (Are you curious or skeptical? This item relates to Dimension 1, reactions to novel ideas.)

1. "We know from the past that in these situations …” (Are you curious or skeptical? This item relates to Dimension 2, the different mindsets and stances.)

1. “I know this looks complicated, but here is what my research has shown ...” (Are you relieved or dubious? This item also taps into Dimension 2, the different mindsets and stances.)

1. “Let’s just get everyone around a table and hash this out.” (Are you enthusiastic or impatient? This item relates to Dimension 4, preference for working collaboratively vs independently.)

1. “We’ve been studying this forever, let’s just take a position here and move on.” (Are you relieved or uncomfortable? This item relates to Dimension 5, tolerance for uncertainty.)

1. When the team is just about to converge on a course of action, someone says, “But there’s another way to think about this …” (Are you curious or irritated? This item also relates to Dimension 5, the need for closure.)

That’s it. There is no special scoring scheme or anything elaborate. We don’t have an item to map onto Dimension 3, differences in knowledge and experience, because that dimension hinges on the specific types of knowledge and experience involved.

This quick test can help you get a perspective on the differences in your team and perhaps illuminate why the team is coordinating so well or is generating so much antagonism. We know there are well-documented and evaluated tests for individual differences in several of the cognitive diversity dimensions, specifically Dimension 1 (reaction to novel ideas) and Dimension 5 (tolerance for uncertainty). Not every team is eager to run through a standardized test battery. The rapid self-test described in this essay might be all that is needed. And, of course, we expect that teams may want to add some of their own questions, perhaps relating to conscientiousness or other factors that matter to them.

We see the primary value of this self-test for helping people appreciate where they stand compared to others: where they are aligned and why they may not be aligned. Another value is for the team leader to take a pulse of the team and its dynamics. This can be achieved through discussion prompts or probes in a team setting.