What are the five dynamics of High Performing Teams?
Research from Google's Project Aristotle identified five key dynamics that distinguish the most effective teams from average performers.
Psychological Safety
A shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking - speaking up will not lead to embarrassment, rejection, or punishment (Edmondson, 2023).
Dependability
Team members get things done on time and meet Google's high bar for excellence.
Structure & Clarity
Team members have clear roles, plans, and goals.
Meaning
Work is personally important to team members.
Impact
Team members think their work matters and creates change.
Evidence-Based Team Performance Framework
Knowing how teams can reshape these five dynamics can be hard, as there are so many factors involved. The Impact Target is an evidence-based open source framework designed to help teams understand how to achieve these dynamics and increase team performance. address these factors across three levels: the Individual, the Team Level, and the Organisational Context of the team.
The impact of the team reflects how well the components of team performance combine across each zone to drive the outcomes your organisation needs.
High-performing teams are unlocked across three zones
Knowing how teams can reshape these five dynamics can be hard as there are so many factors involved, and even just identifying these factors can be complex. The Impact Target is an evidence-based open source framework designed to simplify this complexity. We help teams understand how to achieve these dynamics and increase team performance by first breaking down the factors into three levels: the Individual, the Team Level, and the Organisational Context of the team.
The impact of your teams reflect the strengths of your team across each of these zones and how they to combine to drive the best outcomes for your organisation.
What are the components of each zone?
To help teams understand how they can achieve higher performance, The Impact Target deconstructs each zone into 3-6 components.
Much like scientists use elements on the periodic table to describe all matter, we quantify how your team is performing across
By combining the best evidence from the academic literature, practical experience, and ongoing feedback and research from participants
As each of the components of The Impact Target can be linked to a set of clearly articulated actions, your team can efficiently translate the results into a concrete plan of action.
What are the components of each zone?
To help teams understand how they can achieve higher performance, The Impact Target deconstructs each zone into 3-6 components.
Much like scientists use elements on the periodic table to describe all matter, we quantify how your team is performing across
By combining the best evidence from the academic literature, practical experience, and ongoing feedback and research from participants
As each of the components of The Impact Target can be linked to a set of clearly articulated actions, your team can efficiently translate the results into a concrete plan of action.
What does the assessment process look like?
Team members and stakeholders provide anonymous feedback through surveys
Responses are assessed against dynamics using evidence-based frameworks
Team and individual reports identify patterns, strengths, and development opportunities
Access targeted resources and materials to address identified improvement areas
What will you receive?
Comprehensive analysis of team strengths and improvement areas across individual, team, and organizational contexts. Synthesizes input from all team members and stakeholders to identify performance patterns.
Detailed scoring across key performance domains with benchmarking against other teams
All responses are aggregated and anonymized to protect individual privacy while providing accurate team insights.
Personalized reports for each team member highlighting individual growth opportunities, tailored development suggestions, and links to relevant learning resources.
Specific areas for individual development with curated resources, research links, and practical steps for skill building and performance improvement.
You may return to monitor progress over time through repeated assessments, tracking both individual and team development across multiple measurement periods.
Contribute
Our assessment framework is continuously refined based on empirical research, feedback from experts, and from feedback from our users. We actively encourage contributions, please make a pull request via Github, or email [email protected].