The ideal team player. We can also measure individuals against an ideal. In both productivity-focused and creativity-focused teams, we have discovered the data signature of what we consider the best type of team member. Badge date show that these people circulate actively, engaging people in short, high-energy conversations. They are democratic with their time -- communicating with everyone equally and making sure all team members gets a change to contribute. They're not necessarily extroverts, although they feel comfortable approaching other people. They listen as much as or more than they talk and are usually very engaged with whomever they're listening to. We call it "energized but focused listening."
The best team players also connect their teammates with one another and spread ideas around. And they are appropriately exploratory, seeking ideas from outside the group but not at the expense of group engagement.
Team Building is indeed a science, but it's young and evolving. Now that we've established patterns of communication as the single most important things to measure when gauging the effectiveness of a group, we can begin to refine the data and processes to create more sophisticated measurements, dig deeper into the analysis, and develop new tools that sharpen our view of team member types and team types.
