TRAINING AN INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM IN COMMUNICATION AND DECISION-MAKING SKILLS

The use of interdisciplinary teams to address human service delivery i ssues is becoming increasingly common. Complicated problem require the expertise of a variety of specialists from different disciplines, and increased specialization brings with it a heightened need for interdi sciplinary collaboration. While team meetings are expected to serve as the vehicle for successful collaboration among professionals three ba rriers often stand in the way of effective team interactions: disorgan ization, misunderstandings, and problem-solving difficulties. These pr oblems suggest a need for interventions aimed at improving team commun ication and decision-making processes, as well as a need for methods t o observe and evaluate the effects of such interventions on a team's f unctioning The purpose of this research was twofold: First, we sought to investigate the effects of an intervention that differentially targ eted and trained three sets of group communication and decision-making skills aimed at addressing the three barriers mentioned above A secon d goal was to develop new methods of observation that would overcome s everal serious limitations which have characterized the bulk of existi ng team intervention research An interdisciplinary rehabilitation clin ic's staff served as the subject of the study. Using a multiple baseli ne design across categories of behaviors, the effects of a three-part intervention on the team's day-to-day meeting behavior was assessed. W hile there was substantial variability and overlap in much of the data , videotaped observations revealed that following each training sessio n, there were modest increases in the average frequency of use of most targeted behaviors. Social validation data indicated that team member s found the training to be both useful and enjoyable. Implication for future research are discussed