Planning, shared mental models, and coordinated performance: An empirical link is established

Critical decisions are made every day by teams of individuals who must coor dinate their activities to achieve effectiveness. Researchers recently sugg ested that a shared mental model (SMM) among team members may help them to make successful decisions. Several avenues for developing SMMs in teams exi st, one of which is planning. We explored the relationship between team pla nning, SMMs, and coordinated team decision making and performance. Results indicated that effective planning increased the SMM among team members, all owed them to utilize efficient communication strategies during high-workloa d conditions, and resulted in improved coordinated team performance. In add ition, the communication strategy alone affected the degree of coordinated performance attained by teams during periods of increased workload. Implica tions of these results and team functioning are discussed. Actual or potent ial applications of this research include performance and training in setti ngs that require interdependent actions among operators.