The Lab is collaborating on a study on collaboration!

The Lab's Liz Nilsen is conducting research on cross-organizational teams (teams whose members aren’t all from a single organization). Cross-organizational teams could include community or regional coalitions, joint venture teams, working boards of directors, committees of professional organizations, multi-institutional research teams, etc. The study examines a number of dimensions of the ways in which teams think about their purpose and work together to accomplish it. It does not examine performance.

Liz is looking for cross-organizational teams to participate in the study. Teams need to fit this profile:

• primarily in the US
• at least five members (and fewer than ~12 members seem to have much better response rates than larger teams)
• between them, those members work for or represent at least two different organizations
• around for at least three months (not necessarily with exactly the same people, just as a team)
• has had at least one meeting
• is still active as a team
• the team meets in person OR some people are in person and some online/phone OR some meetings are in person and some online/phone OR people know one another besides the team meetings (in other words, the members have had at least one chance to talk in person, somewhere and somehow)
• not a team just for social or sports purposes

Participation involves asking the team members to complete a short (~15 minutes) one-time survey. The survey is completely confidential – Liz is the only person who will ever see identifying information about the team or its members. The Institutional Research Board at Eastern University has approved the study.

If you have a team that fits the criteria, or can connect Liz with one, email her. She'll ask you for information about your team, and will ask you to let your team know that they'll receive a link to fill the survey out.

Here's Liz talking about the research: