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Low Level Predictors of Team Dynamics: A Neurodynamic Approach

Ronald H. Stevens

Trysha L. Galloway

Ann Willemsen-Dunlap

Team Dynamics Over Time

ISBN: 978-1-78635-404-4, eISBN: 978-1-78635-403-7

Publication date: 4 August 2017

Abstract

Purpose

In this chapter we highlight a neurodynamic approach that is showing promise as a quantitative measure of team performance.

Methodology/approach

During teamwork the rapid electroencephalographic (EEG) oscillations that emerge on the scalp were transformed into symbolic data streams which provided historical details at a second-by-second resolution of how the team perceived the evolving task and how they adjusted their dynamics to compensate for, and anticipate new task challenges. Key to this approach are the different strategies that can be used to reduce the data dimensionality, including compression, abstraction and taking advantage of the natural redundancy in biologic signals.

Findings

The framework emerging is that teams continually enter and leave organizational neurodynamic partnerships with each other, so-called metastable states, depending on the evolving task, with higher level dynamics arising from mechanisms that naturally integrate over faster microscopic dynamics.

Practical implications

The development of quantitative measures of the momentary dynamics of teams is anticipated to significantly influence how teams are assembled, trained, and supported. The availability of such measures will enable objective comparisons to be made across teams, training protocols, and training sites. They will lead to better understandings of how expertise is developed and how training can be modified to accelerate the path toward expertise.

Originality/value

The innovation of this study is the potential it raises for developing globally applicable quantitative models of team dynamics that will allow comparisons to be made across teams, tasks, and training protocols.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the participating staff and students of the Order of Saint Francis Hospital community for their logistical and technical support for these studies. The studies were supported in part by the JUMP Foundation for Simulation Research and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under contract W31P4QC0166.

Citation

Stevens, R.H., Galloway, T.L. and Willemsen-Dunlap, A. (2017), "Low Level Predictors of Team Dynamics: A Neurodynamic Approach", Team Dynamics Over Time (Research on Managing Groups and Teams, Vol. 18), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 71-92. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1534-085620160000018004

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited