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Who is on the Team? Exploring the Diverse Characteristics of Collaborative Teams

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A Practical Guide for Developing Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Skills

Abstract

The development of relationships between individual team members is critical to effective collaboration. Whether you are a person who considers themselves a team member or a team facilitator, the development of quality relationships influences the extent to which the shared goals of the project are achieved by the team. It is important to intentionally facilitate the emergence and growth of relationships using a variety of processes whereby team members can learn more about each other’s characteristics—behavioral styles, approaches to research, motivational drivers, world views, values, talents, and interests. The extent to which these characteristics are explored will be dependent on the context/complexity of the project and the extent to which team members have worked with each other in the past (i.e., team history). This chapter focuses on the importance of accounting for the compositional characteristics of team members—e.g., behavior patterns, motivational drivers, personality, dispositions, demographics, cultural heritage, etc.—as an inherent part of the collaborative process. Learning to respect, manage, and navigate the differences in these characteristics in your specific context is important to team development and its long-term effectiveness.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental and Sustainability Studies and School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    David Gosselin

  2. Research and Development, TTI Success Insights LTD, Scottsdale, AZ, USA

    Ronald J. Bonnstetter

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  1. David Gosselin
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  2. Ronald J. Bonnstetter
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Correspondence to David Gosselin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    David Gosselin

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Gosselin, D., Bonnstetter, R.J. (2023). Who is on the Team? Exploring the Diverse Characteristics of Collaborative Teams. In: Gosselin, D. (eds) A Practical Guide for Developing Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Skills . AESS Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies and Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37220-9_4

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