Team Identity Wheel: A Tool for Professional and Practice Development

Seminar Description: Social Identity Wheels are powerful tools guiding self-exploration revealing the intersectionality of multiple facets of one’s identity. Identity Wheels are applied in areas of social justice and professional development of educators; however, little has been accomplished towards their application with interprofessional teams. The IPEC core competencies (Roles and Responsibilities, Values and Ethics, Communication, and Teams and Teamwork) along with Leadership are central to developing high-functioning teams. These areas interconnect to form overlapping and interdependent aspects of team functioning. Completing a Team Identity Wheel fosters insight into strengths and weaknesses of team processes and reveals the social domino effect that impacts overall team functioning. This exercise served as a professional development activity at a Primary Care conference. Participants were placed in interprofessional groups and assessed their existing workspace teams using the Team Identity Wheel. The group shared their individual assessments and collaborated on ideas for growth and change. This activity can also be adopted as a team activity to work on quality improvement within a given team’s workspace.

After learning about this tool’s use for professional development, seminar attendees will participate in the activity. Presenters will create a safe space for sharing. Attendees will outline their own team identities using a Team Identity wheel. They will individually reflect on their home team processes uncovering strengths and weaknesses. Next, participants will work in breakout rooms sharing insights from the Team Identity exercise and recording common themes on Google Docs. They will collaborate on strengths and barriers to high team functioning and gain insight into how other teams have met similar challenges. A large group debrief will follow. Polls and word clouds through Mentimeter will be used to promote sharing in the larger group as participants identify common strengths, barriers, and mechanisms for growth.
Presenters will discuss the interconnectedness of the various sections of the Team Identity Wheel, and, through reflection, attendees will explore ways to improve the culture of their current workspace. The exercise will help participants to redefine how they view their team and how this impacts their team outcomes and team wellness. Attendees will leave with small tangible goals to take back to their home workspaces to foster cultures that support high-functioning teams.

This activity centers around evaluating the team by focusing on each individual element of the larger interconnected team dynamic. Gaining insight into how one area impacts other areas and learning new ideas from other teams on how to approach identified barriers is central to addressing the theme for this conference: working together for impact. We will support and learn from others’ experiences and reflect on how we can all work to improve the teams on which we work.

Objectives:
• Evaluate Interprofessional aspects of one’s team
• Reflect on the interdependent quality of various aspects of the team, exploring how these affect their work, relationships in a unit, and outcomes
• Develop strategies for improving culture to support team processes and build high-functioning teams
• Identify small goals to strengthen one’s team and bring about change