The Team Barometer

The Team Barometer helps groups and teams of all kinds function better and become more productive.

The Team Barometer is one of the Four Rooms of Change analytical instruments. To use the barometer with a group, that group must have a shared objective.

The Team Barometer measures the relationships within a group that affect its functionality. When working with the barometer, everyone participates according to their ability and contributes to data collection, diagnosis and action plans.

The Team Barometer can be described as a two-part package: Introduction to the Four Rooms and the Team Barometer analysis instrument.

Where can the Team Barometer be used?

It can actually be used in any group. Several groups can also use the Team Barometer in parallel.

Some examples of suitable groups are:

• Teams
• Working groups
• Work teams
• Management teams
• Project groups
• Results units

The theory behind the Teambarometer

The Teambarometer is an analysis instrument for exploring group dynamics, based on two psychological theories: Claes Janssen’s Four Rooms of Change and Wilfred R. Bion’s theory of groups.
Bion (1897–1979) was a psychoanalyst born in India and raised in England. He worked as a psychoanalyst for much of his life, beginning his research into groups while working with the rehabilitation of returning soldiers and officers during the war. He is recognised for two aspects of his work. One strand is his research on conscious and unconscious processes in groups. The other strand of his work concerns thinking.

Bion was fascinated by the question he formulated himself:

How can normally talented and socially well-functioning people behave in such an incomprehensible — even downright stupid — manner when in a group?

Wilfred R. Bion’s theory of how people function in groups was developed during World War II. He is one of the relatively few people to have created a psychological theory of group functions that is not a combination of different individual psychological theories. The theory is unique in its kind. It is still highly relevant and is used all over the world.

Among other things, Bion discovered important and interesting patterns in both conscious and unconscious events in groups and organisations. He made it possible to study and understand these events.

Since conducting his pioneering research into groups, Wilfred R. Bion has been regarded as a leading figure in group psychology.
Bion conducted his studies at the Tavistock Institute outside London. He has thus also become one of the leading figures in the so-called Tavistock tradition.

In Sweden, there are organisations close to this tradition; the most well-known is the Working Group for the Study of Leadership and Organisation. In the US, there is the A. K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems.

Claes Janssen’s theory of the Four Rooms of Change and Bion’s theory of groups interact powerfully. Together, they can help us to understand and handle complex events more productively.

Would you like to develop a group with the Team Barometer?

Using the Teambarometer significantly accelerates the learning process compared to traditional methods of understanding and learning to manage group processes.

In order to coach a group using the Teambarometer, you must first be certified to use the basic instrument of the Four Rooms, i.e. you must have completed the certification program.

You will also need to participate in the Teambarometer’s advanced certification program. Contact us for more information.