I still love the fact that I get to meet amazing folks that are changing how HR works. I had the pleasure of virtually meeting Dr. Presser and she is really focus on being able to Assess and Predict how people will get along with a Team. Her approach ended up helping them reduce their first year turnover from 30% to 0 for three years! Pretty cool!
1. Dr. Presser - first of all, tell us a bit about yourself! What led you to HR studies?
I never actually studied HR, although I did run a couple of HR departments in the past. I’m a behavioral scientist by trade, and from my early days I was interested in one big question: what really happens when people team together? I got to do a lot of observation in the various jobs I had, from being an advanced practice psych nurse to president of a sheet metal manufacturing company. Then, in the mid-80s I was very lucky to meet Dr. Jack Gerber, another behavioral scientist with an interest in applying hard science to the study of team interaction. We spent years looking at every kind of assessment and measure we could find, and every statistical method too. There was nothing wrong with them, but breaking human behavior down to parts and pieces just didn’t tell us what we were after.
We wanted to measure ‘teaming’, so we had to find a way to elicit teaming behavior. And we wanted to understand teaming relationships, so we first had to develop theoretical structures and then rigorously test them. We wanted to understand people in terms of their team performance, which we already knew was a function of what happens between people, not what’s inside them.
Teamability is really a branch of management science, though optimally, it’s a very important part of HR.
2. You have come up with a great concept of Teamability - can you share an overview for everyone?
The theoretical foundation of Teamability is very different from the testing of a person’s IQ, personality traits, aptitudes and other qualities. That’s why Team Analysis can add value to any existing talent or performance measurement system, and can open the door for HR to make new contributions in the areas of management guidance and organizational performance.
Team interaction, as you would expect, is very complex. Jack and I spent 25 years working on this, including 9 years of R&D in technology that would measure and report on it. However, in practice, the use of Teamability is straightforward and very efficient. If you have a team with persistent problems – or one that consistently outperforms the rest – a Team Analysis pilot will tell you exactly what’s going on in the collaborative structure of the group. If it’s poor, the Team Analytics will tell you how to improve it, and if it’s good, how to replicate it.
You can start small, with an exploratory pilot. For a team of 8-12 people, a $5,000 investment will produce management advisory information that is easy to understand and implement, and that will deliver positive results.
3. Since this is prior to HR tech - what is the technology behind the administration of the test?
The Teamability experience happens online, on-demand, and is delivered as a service, so there is no software to install or maintain. It takes most people about an hour from start to finish, but the system will allow you to leave partway through, and return later on. How long you take to finish has no bearing on the results.
Within the system, you are described as a movie star with a contract to star in ten movies, and all of your choices have to do with the characters you may or may not choose to play. Most people find the exercise to be interesting and even fun. Some have reported that their progress was very slow in the beginning, but picked up as they moved along.
In reality, the user experience is deceptively simple. Time is not a factor, but the choices being made are only part of what is being measured. We used Movies as a construct, because they present a situation similar to a team project with problems to be solved, in which a set group of people interact on the way to achieving resolution.
The results can be presented in two different reports, which are brief and in plain English. Either one or both reports can be automatically generated and delivered, according to pre-set request. The Self-coaching report helps a person understand their own mode of teaming (which we call their ‘Role’) and also the different Roles and how they operate. The goal is to improve team collaboration. The Management Advisory reports support strategic and tactical decisions on selection, development, management, and motivation of both individuals and teams.
Administration is simple. We certainly didn’t want to give busy HR people even more to do! The only information requirements are Mr/Ms, First name, Last name, email address, and a few checkbox selections. These are entered into the online Teamability Portal system, which generates and emails the invitation containing login and password.
4. There are two key issues with assessments - so lets tackle the first one. Share how the validity testing was done and how it went?
Because Teamability is based on qualitative measurement, the objective of each set of validations was to confirm the level of correlation that exists between descriptions in the reports and actual workplace performance. Interactions happen between people in context, so they can’t be correlated with a database of personality traits. Therefore, we did what was required: field validation by direct observation, performed by trained observers.
Over 200 organizations have used Teamability, and some of them are now conducting their own validation of business benefits, which is the main thing they care about. They are demonstrating improvements in team quality hiring, increasing the effectiveness of their teambuilding, accruing improvements in productivity, quality and safety, and identifying and nurturing diverse leadership.
5. Okay - and the second major issue is every HR Lawyers concern - Adverse Impact testing. So how did you run it and what were the results? (Sample size, some of the descriptive stats)
Throughout its development, Teamability was examined for evidence of bias (age, race, gender, nationality, culture). No indication of bias was found, and no claims of bias or discrimination have ever been raised. In fact, in a detailed examination of the employee assessment landscape, the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor and Employment Law singled out the product as bias-free and in compliance with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
By the way, the initial validation group was exceptionally diverse. It even included a Tibetan! And what was most heartening is that none of it mattered when it came to teaming – not gender, not race, not age, not nationality. Teaming seems to be a universal human capability. Understanding and applying this knowledge will be a great leveler of playing fields, which gives me hope that the idea of ‘diversity hiring’ and concerns about the lack of women in the C-suite will cease to be issues in the near future.
6. So what are some of the success stories for your clients?
Right from the beginning, Jack and I were looking for a metric that would positively impact business results, and the results have surpassed even our best hopes. For instance, in a growing $1 Billion company, new-hire turnover had been stuck at 30% for years, despite the use of top-tier recruiting firms and HR best practices for interviewing and onboarding. When they added Teamability to the hiring process, new-hire turnover plummeted to Zero%. More than 3 years have passed since then, the firm has grown by 700+ people, and new-hire turnover is still virtually non-existent. Can you imagine how much time and money they’ve saved? That’s business value!
Here’s another example with a very different focal point.
One element of teaming is called ‘Team-fit’, and it is the indicator of alignment between specific modes of teaming (as identified by Teamability) and the mission of the team. In a company that served as a pioneer in adopting our technology, there were a lot of sales problems and a revolving door on the office of Sales VP. Team Analysis revealed a huge gap in the Sales team’s collaborative structure, and identified one of the organization’s purchasing managers as ideal for Team-fit and other essential teaming attributes. It took more than a year (and yet another failed hire) for management to approve the promotion. Improbable as it seems, this person had five hugely successful years in the top Sales position, and then was made the Chief Operating Officer! She has held that post 6 years now. Without Teamability, they never would have identified her true potential, or used it to their benefit.
I could go on and on, but just think of this: the better you align how people ‘team’ with what you expect them to do, and the better you align team members with the mission of their team, the stronger and more vibrant the collaborative structure of the team becomes. And that improvement is measurable in ways that go straight to the bottom line. It’s one place where HR can show it’s more than just a cost center!
7. Lastly, how can folks look to learn more?
The best way to learn what Teamability can do for you is to pick a team that you want to examine, perhaps to understand a performance problem, or to identify the underpinnings of strong performance. Then run a Team Analysis pilot. It will tell you what’s going on with the team, and the resulting Team Analytics will reveal the details: how to change, where to coach, or what to replicate. It’s low risk, inexpensive, and always produces something of value – which includes bringing HR to the table as a source of business benefits.
We also offer a free basic course in Teamability – a two-hour webinar that qualifies for two HRCI recertification credits – and we run a weekend advanced course a few times a year. And, of course, there’s my new book, called @DrJanice, which just became available on Amazon, and is launching October 30 at the Constellation Connected Enterprise conference in San Francisco!
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