The Long Voyage to Mars: Can the Science of Team Performance Contribute?

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The Long Voyage to Mars Can the Science of Team
Performance Contribute?

• Eduardo Salas, Ph.D.
• Department of Psychology and
• Institute for Simulation Training
• University of Central Florida
• esalas_at_ist.ucf.edu

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• Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to
  attain uncommon results
• -Andrew Carnegie

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Outline

• Why NASA (and partners) should care about
  teamwork?
• The Missions
• Performance Environment
• What does the science tell us?
• How do you promote mission teamwork?
• Before, During, After
• How do we know this works?
• Concluding remarks

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The Missions

• Low Earth Orbit
• International Space Station missions
• 2004-2010
• Lunar Exploration
• Further science, develop test new approaches,
  technologies, systems
• Exploration activities to enable sustained human
  and robotic exploration of Mars
• 2015 and beyond
• Mars!
• Human robotic exploration
• 2030 and beyond

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The Performance Environment

• Long duration
• 6 months to multiple years
• Small, enclosed spaces
• Limited resources
• Extreme isolation
• Extreme environmental conditions
• No oxygen
• No air pressure/gravity
• Extreme temperature
• Radiation exposure
• Extreme variability (e.g. conditions change every
  45 minutes as shuttle orbits earth alone)

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Demands of Performance Environment

• Complex, multi-component decisions
• Rapidly evolving, ambiguous situations
• Information overload
• Severe time pressure
• Severe consequences of error
• Adverse physical conditions
• Performance/command pressure
• Distributed, multi-operator problems

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Implications for Human Performance

• Crew members live, work, and
  interact together constantly
• No days off in space!
• Similar to stresses of military deployment
• Multi-team membership
• Air crew, ground grew, different project crews
• Daily measurement, multiple times
• Physiological metrics, food intake, etc.
• Must fill multiple roles
• In spacewere the Maytag repairman, were the
  cook, were the photographer, were the document
  keeper, were the cleaner, were the proxy
  scientist, the robotics operator, the
  spacewalker (Julie Payette)

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Teamwork is the Key Element of Success!
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So can the science of team performance
contribute?
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YES!!
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How do you turn a team of experts into an expert
team?
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The Science

• 30 years of history
• Lots of empirical work
• In context with experts
• In simulations
• Strong understanding of teamwork
• Principles
• Guidelines tips
• Strategies that work are available
• Team training
• Simulation-based training

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The Science in Multiple Contexts
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Teamwork Books Publications
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What is Teamwork?
Teamwork
Coordination
Cooperation
Communication
Motivational
Behavioral
Information
Components
Strategies
Exchange
Protocols

• Back-up Behavior
• Mutual Performance Monitoring/Adaptation
• Task-related assertiveness

• Collective Efficacy
• Team Cohesion
• Psychological Safety
• Collective/Team Orientation

• Briefings
• Debriefings
• Closed-loop Communication

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What is Teamwork?
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What is Teamwork?
THE CORE
Team Leadership
Mutual Trust
Closed Loop Communication
Mutual Performance Monitoring
Back-Up Behavior
Team Orientation
Adaptability
Shared Mental Models
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What is Teamwork?
THE CORE
Team Leadership
Mutual Trust
Closed Loop Communication

• Team Leadership
• Determine task to be assigned.
• Set expectations for task.
• Focus team attention on task and provide
  situation updates.
• Encourage all members to contribute.
• Set climate for collaboration.

Mutual Performance Monitoring
Back-Up Behavior
Team Orientation
Adaptability
Shared Mental Models
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What is Teamwork?

• Back-up Behavior
• Step in and help other teammates.
• Make sure teammates are aware of what you did.
• Ask for help when needed.

THE CORE
Team Leadership
Mutual Trust
Closed Loop Communication
Mutual Performance Monitoring
Back-Up Behavior
Team Orientation
Adaptability
Shared Mental Models
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What is Teamwork?
THE CORE

• Adaptability
• Recognize changes in the environment.
• Change functions.
• Shift strategies when appropriate.
• Alter behavior to demands.

Team Leadership
Mutual Trust
Closed Loop Communication
Mutual Performance Monitoring
Back-Up Behavior
Team Orientation
Adaptability
Shared Mental Models
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What is Teamwork?
THE CORE

• Team Orientation
• Consider teammate input.
• Accept feedback and assistance.
• Be willing to observe teammates.

Team Leadership
Mutual Trust
Closed Loop Communication
Mutual Performance Monitoring
Back-Up Behavior
Team Orientation
Adaptability
Shared Mental Models
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What Effective Teams Do

• have members who anticipate each other.
• can coordinate without the need to communicate
  overtly.
• develop collective efficacy.
• optimize resources.
• Are self correcting.
• Compensate for each other.
• Reallocate functions.
• have a strong sense of team orientation.
• can recognize the need to adapt and adjust
  their strategy under stress.

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What Effective Teams Do

• have a clear common purpose.
• differentiate between higher and lower
  priorities.
• ensure team member roles are clear but not
  overly rigid.
• manage conflict well-team members confront each
  other effectively.
• involve the right people in decisions.
• examine and adjust the teams physical
  workplace to optimize communication and
  coordination.

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What Effective Teams Do

• backup and fill in for each other.
• distribute and assign work thoughtfully.
• communicate often "enough. Ensure that fellow
  team members have the information they need to
  be able to contribute.
• conduct effective meetings.
• establish and revise team goals and plans.
• consciously integrate new team members.

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What Effective Teams Do

• identify teamwork and task work requirements.
• ensure that, through staffing and/or
  development, the team possesses the right mix
  of competencies.
• effectively span boundaries with stakeholders
  outside the team.
• negotiate for the resources needed to succeed.
• regularly provide feedback to each other, both
  individually and as a team (de-brief).
• select team members who value teamwork.
• deal with poor performers.

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What Effective Teams Do

• strongly believe in the teams collective
  ability to succeed.
• have members who understand each others roles
  and how they fit together.
• trust other team members intentions.
• periodically diagnose team "effectiveness,
  including its results, its processes, and its
  vitality (morale, retention, energy).
• are neither too large nor too small.

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What Effective Teams Do

• have mechanisms for anticipating and reviewing
  issues/problems of members.
• have a critical mass that actively supports
  what the team is trying to accomplish.
• have team members who believe the leaders cares
  about them.
• are led by someone with good leadership skills
  and not just technical competence.

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Promoting Teamwork for the Voyage

• Before launching
• During voyage
• After mission

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Promoting Teamwork BEFORE

• Compose the team membership/selection
• (Klimoski Jones, 1995)
• Select team members for required competencies
• Personality tests
• Simulations
• Situational judgment tests
• Select team leaders
• Simulations
• Not much research!

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Promoting Teamwork BEFORE

• Enhance individual team member capabilities
• Individual taskwork training
• Goal setting/ performance management
• Individual feedback
• On-the-job training
• Coaching/mentoring
• Team leader training (Tannenbaum et al., 1998)

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Promoting Teamwork BEFORE

• Improve Team interactions/processes
• Role clarification
• Who does what with whom?
• Team building
• Facilitated process analysis
• Self correction
• Team pre-brief/de-brief interventions
• Set expectations
• Some validity

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Promoting Teamwork BEFORE

• Build team competencies
  (Salas Cannon-Bowers, 2001)
• Cross-training (e.g.
  positional rotation,
  position
  clarification
  training)
• Team coordination training/CRM (Wiener,
  Helmeich Kanki, 1993)
• Meta-cognition training (Cohen et al., 1998)

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Promoting Teamwork DURING

• Maintaining Teamwork
• Scenario-based training
• Guided Team self-correction(Smith-Jentsch et
  al., 1998)
• Designed to teachteams to correctlyidentify
  errors andadapt in real time to compensate
  for those errors
• Focus on behaviors
• Mutual performancemonitoring tasks
• Stress awareness
• Compensatorybehavior
• Taking initiative
• Communication

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Guided Team Self-Correction

• Self-Correction Process
• Event Review
• Error Identification
• Feedback Exchange
• Planning for Future

• Enhanced Cognitions
• Shared Mental Models
• Improved
• Expectations
• Explanations
• Task Understanding

• Behaviors
• Enhanced Team Processes
• -Coordination
• -Communication

• Attitudes
• Collective Orientation
• Higher Cohesion

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Maintaining Teamwork in Space Issues

• Remote monitoring of teamwork factors
• Dynamic measurement gauges
• Just in time measurement
• Non-invasive
• Ability to track over time
• Cut-off scores to determine need for further
  intervention
• Remote team training
• Delivery mechanisms
• PC
• Simulated scenarios

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Team Training Evidence that it works

• Salas, DiazGranados, Klein, Burke, Stagl,
  Goodwin, Halpin (2008)
• Assessed relative effectiveness of these
  interventions on team outcomes
• Cognitive
• Teamwork knowledge
• Transactive memory
• Affective
• Attitudes towards teamwork
• Burnout
• Process
• Communication
• Coordination
• Performance
• Simulation performance
• Number of errors

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Results

• Overall, team training was shown to have a
  moderate, positive effect on team functioning (?
  .34)
• Effects of team training on distinct outcomes
• Cognitive outcomes (? .42)
• Affective outcomes (? .35)
• Process outcomes (? .44)
• Performance outcomes (? .39)

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What does this mean?

• Team training does work!
• Team training can explain 12-19 of the variance
  of a teams performance which means
• Reducing errors!
• Successfully completing missions!

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More Evidence that it works

• Salas, Nichols, Driskell (2007)
• Investigated relative contributions of three
  different components of team training
• Cross-training (CT)
• Team members rotate positions during training to
  develop shared understanding of required KSAs
• Team coordination and adaptation training
  (TACT)/Crew Resource Management (CRM)
• Teaches how to alter coordination strategy and to
  reduce the amount of communication necessary for
  successful task performance
• Guided team self-correction training (GSC)
• Use facilitated debriefs to learn how to diagnose
  team problems and develop effective solutions

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Results

• Overall, team training improved performance (r
  .29)
• Team training effectiveness by components
• Team coordination and adaptation training/CRM (r
  .61)
• Guided team self-correction training (r .45)

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What does this mean?

• TACT/CRM contributes the most to improving team
  effectiveness
• TACT/CRM can explain 37 of the variance
• Guided team self-correction helps teams enhance
  team performance by
• Building shared mental models
• Self-Correcting
• Becoming More Resilient to Stress!

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On the Horizon

• Multi-team systems
• Multi-level
• Distributed teams
• Shared cognition
• Macro cognition

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Conclusions

• NASA needs to rely on the science!
• Utilize tools available to us
• Team coordination and adaptation training
• Guided team self-correction training
• Science and practice Together, lets helpour
  space teams
  help themselves!

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Thank you!