Can Teamwork Enhance Safety?

Abstract

Teams today often integrate the unique expertise of members in order to achieve performance and safety goals not possible by individuals alone, while facing challenges of operating in complex, diverse, and dynamic environments. However, simply relying on team member's expertise is not enough to produce effective teams. The science of team effectiveness has much to offer in regards to our understanding of developing and maintaining effective teamwork and safe behaviors, cognitions and attitudes in complex situations. Drawing upon the current state of the science, we provide an organizing heuristic of critical considerations that should be addressed by those involved in the use of expert teams to enable team success. We further offer scientifically driven guidance regarding ways in which teams can enhance safety based on these considerations. Specifically, the 7 C's synthesize the extant literature on effective teams to help guide organizations in diagnosing and developing teams in environments where performance reliability is paramount. The components of teamwork within this framework emphasize the role of six key team processes as well as one influencing condition. Taken together, these six characteristics of effective teamwork and their influencing conditions are used for practical guidance that will improve safety through teamwork. They essentially allow people to act as individuals, each with their own specialty and talent, while simultaneously enticing them to act cohesively to identify and close potential gaps and risky behavior.

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