Developing and evaluating a team development intervention to support interdisciplinary teams

Abstract

This version may be subject to change during the production process.

The Effect of Team Communication Behaviors and Processes on Interdisciplinary Teams’ Research Productivity and Team Satisfaction

“…Formal communication skills training and team development programs constitute investments that may be just as important as pilot funding that covers direct costs. Universities and other research-focused organizations have questioned how best to support teams charged with developing innovative approaches to grand challenges facing society; offering effective team development initiatives that enhance team cohesion and individual communication skills can help create positive, productive teams (Cheruvelil et al, 2014;Morgan et al, 2021).…”

“…Each year, awardees are required to attend a full-day team science training workshop that provides evidence for best practices for interdisciplinary team collaborations and a hands-on opportunity to develop key skills. (Additional details about the team science workshop content and the evaluation of its effectiveness are provided in Morgan et al, 2021). Additional professional development activities designed to enhance the knowledge and practice of interdisciplinary collaboration occur throughout the academic year.…”

“…Based on these findings, it does appear that with time and experience, teams become more highly functional. However, it should be recognized that an important part of the interdisciplinary initiative that provides funding for these teams is the mandatory participation in team training and development activities, which are described elsewhere (Morgan et al, 2021). This is a competing explanation for these improvements.…”

Introduction to the themed issue on the design, development, evaluation, and dissemination of team science interventions in clinical and translational research

“…• Team science interventions can and should occur at multiple levels, from workshops for individuals to whole-team activities to improve teamwork to institution-wide approaches to facilitating team science [10][11][12]. These interventions should integrate with the increasing number of training opportunities being offered by CTSA hubs, creating "cradleto-grave" support for teams and the individuals who comprise them [10,[12][13][14]. Teams may need some or all of these interventions.…”

“…What can an individual, a team, or an institution expect to gain from participating in a given intervention and how will that gain be measured in a rigorous and reproducible way? itself [6,15,16], with others describing the process they used in intervention development in detail [8,13]. The SciTS field needs more rigorous methods for every stage of the intervention development process, but we do not need to start from scratch.…”