Planning, Shared Mental Models, and Coordinated Performance: An Empirical Link Is Established

Critical decisions are made every day by teams of individuals who must coordinate their activities to achieve effectiveness. Researchers recently suggested that a shared mental model (SMM) among team members may help them to make successful decisions. Several avenues for developing SMMs in teams exist, one of which is planning. We explored the relationship between team planning, SMMs, and coordinated team decision making and performance. Results indicated that effective planning increased the SMM among team members, allowed them to utilize efficient communication strategies during high-workload conditions, and resulted in improved coordinated team performance. In addition, the communication strategy alone affected the degree of coordinated performance attained by teams during periods of increased workload. Implications of these results and team functioning are discussed. Actual or potential applications of this research include performance and training in settings that require interdependent actions among operators.