Diagnostic Assessments

Team performance is primarily affected by the context in which it operates. That includes the composition of the team, its members’ skills, talents and personal styles as well as the competence of the team as a whole. Most of all it includes the team’s ability to monitor its own performance honestly and to change its pattern when it becomes necessary to do so. It is essential then for coaches to engage in an up-front diagnostic effort to get a handle on all these variables.

Diagnostic assessments (depending on the size of the group and the complexities of its circumstances) can be as easy as interviewing the team’s leaders or by the coach holding a direct discussion with the team. Sometimes it means asking participants to complete simple survey forms, and at other times, the coach will decide to conduct focus groups to acquire the needed information.

Whatever the case, the purpose of the exercise is to identify the problems that a specific group struggles with, its strengths and liabilities, and the objectives the group is trying to achieve. The ultimate purpose of this information is to guide all the work that follows.

The results of this assessment are submitted to the team for review, for reactions and for an approval to proceed to the next step.