What makes a resilient team? A project in the army

A resilient team is a team that can bounce back, that is, withstand or recover from adverse events and stressors. Team resilience is vital in the Army where people almost always have to work together to accomplish their objectives, sometimes under exceptionally tough circumstances. Which teams are most resilient? How is team resilience measured? How can team resilience be enhanced?

In this project, led by Associate Professor Daniel Guciardi from Curtin University, a multidisciplinary group of scholars will work together to answer these questions. Using a diverse range of approaches including audio and visual recordings, questionnaires, interviews, and physiological assessments (e.g., salivary cortisol), they will examine army teams closely. The ultimate goal is to translate the findings to help create a resilient, high performing army.

The project is funded by the Defense Science and Technology Group, and is part of the Human Performance Research network. As well as Daniel, the team includes Prof. Nikos Ntoumanis, Assoc/Prof. Cecilie Thøgersen-Ntoumani, and Drs Kagan Ducker and Eleanor Quested (Curtin University); Dr Monique Crane (Macquarie University); and Prof. Sharon Parker and Dr Peter Peeling (The University of Western Australia).