Team Dynamics

Understanding how teams work in high pressure situations is important, even more so when the teams are in the United States Army. Considering the multiple and rapidly changing challenges that the Army faces, the need for efficient analysis of team composition and dynamics is intensified. The Mission Impossible? Teamwork and Team Composition in High Risk, High Stress Environments Creative Inquiry project, led by Dr. Marissa Shuffler and graduate students Kyle Christenson and Kirby Allen from the Department of Psychology, collaborates with four other universities to determine efficient strategies for teams in dangerous and uncertain situations. The project is supported by a grant funded by the Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences and includes collaborators at Rice University, The University of Akron, University of Georgia, Arizona State University, Clemson University, Aptima and the Group for Organizational Effectiveness.

The Creative Inquiry team runs two quasi-realistic military operation scenarios each week at the T. Ed Garrison Livestock Arena. During the simulations, participants work in groups of five to conduct three missions: Humanitarian Aid; Search and Retrieve; and Escape. The teams must work together to complete the missions within a set time. “For our escape scenario, we’ll have zones that our participants can’t cross, so you have to work together to either build something to transport humanitarian aid, find some extra food supplies so you can make it to the village or escape from the island by building a tower with a beacon on top,” Carson Goodier, a junior psychology and world cinema double-major, said.

The simulations are recorded in order for the Creative Inquiry team to observe and collect data on the team dynamics and participant behaviors during the mission. After simulations, the participants respond to survey questions pertaining to the mission and its level of difficulty, their impression of each teammate and their teams’ overall performance. The survey responses help the Creative Inquiry team calculate the perceived intensity of each mission and the complex dynamics of each unique team.

A future goal for the Creative Inquiry project is to develop sensors for participants, or real soldiers, to wear in order to collect real-time data which will help control observer bias. The team is currently refining their rating system to prepare for the use of sensors.

The Creative Inquiry students are excited that their work contributes to the research of this multi-institution initiative to benefit the armed forces. “Our research is actually going to be implemented, as we design a paradigm for teamwork and team composition that will be applied in the actual Army so they can effectively face the threats that come up in the future,” Goodier said.