We are moving into a hybrid working situation where many of the previous assumptions about roles and activities – and the allocation of these amongst teams – no longer hold. It may be necessary to expand or change roles significantly, and not all staff will be able to adapt quickly. The degree to which working groups can ‘gel’ will become increasingly significant in the ‘new normal’ (whatever that turns out to be). Overall team effectiveness will become critical. ERST can assess individual preferences, and predict likely behaviours in a new team, enabling management to make more effective decisions about role allocation. An example of a team diagnostic comprising four members – A to D, as shown below:

Some of the issues arising from this diagnosis are as follows

• While the team is stable on the whole, a couple of its members may respond quite negatively to demanding situations.
• The less extroverted team members may find some of their colleagues to be too exuberant and inclined to dominate interactions.
• Person B is likely to be a challenge to the rest of the team, being readily excitable and likely to find fault. However, they tend to be tolerant and may bear with him. While B is likely to play his/her part with dedication, this individual may feel team-mates let him/her down. Person A is very laid back and team-mates may feel he/she does not care enough about things which might go wrong. The team as a whole tends to be open, and may well miss out on tact and diplomacy. Person C is clearly exuberant, and may sometimes get carried away by ideas that are not fully realized.
• The wide spread of indications on openness could reflect incompatible values regarding being frank and straightforward, versus being more guarded or diplomatic

Recommendations:

• Run a workshop with the team, encouraging sharing of profiles and their implications.
• Review awareness of details of more extreme indications and their management, applying the ERST process
• Explore coaching for team members A and B as part of their development.
• In future recruitment, consider team balance, particularly regarding Openness

Selection and Development Technologies will be delighted to advise on team structure where this is felt to be useful.