CBS Team Building & Development 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which psychological concept explains why individuals exert less effort in a group than when working alone?
- Cognitive dissonance
- Social loafing (Correct answer)
- Diffusion of responsibility
- Conformity bias
Correct answer: Social loafing
Social loafing occurs when individuals reduce personal effort because they believe their contribution is less identifiable within a group.
Question 2: A team leader wants to build psychological safety. Which behavior best demonstrates this?
- Publicly praising only top performers
- Acknowledging their own mistakes openly during team meetings (Correct answer)
- Setting stretch goals that exceed current capabilities
- Limiting feedback to annual reviews
Correct answer: Acknowledging their own mistakes openly during team meetings
Leaders who openly admit mistakes signal that vulnerability is acceptable, which is foundational to psychological safety (Amy Edmondson's research).
Question 3: Which stage of team development is characterized by high productivity and strong interpersonal trust?
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Performing
In the Performing stage, teams operate with high cohesion and interdependence, focusing energy on shared goals rather than interpersonal issues.
Question 4: A CBS candidate is designing onboarding for a new strategic team. Which element has the greatest long-term impact on team effectiveness?
- Providing comprehensive process documentation
- Establishing relational foundations through structured team introductions (Correct answer)
- Assigning tasks immediately to demonstrate urgency
- Distributing the org chart and reporting hierarchy
Correct answer: Establishing relational foundations through structured team introductions
Relational onboarding builds trust and psychological safety early, which research shows is a stronger predictor of long-term team performance than task orientation alone.
Question 5: What distinguishes a high-performing team from a merely functional one?
- Members have identical skill sets
- Members hold each other mutually accountable for results (Correct answer)
- The team avoids all interpersonal conflict
- The team leader makes all key decisions
Correct answer: Members hold each other mutually accountable for results
Lencioni's model identifies mutual accountability as the apex behavior that separates high-performing teams from average ones.
Question 6: A team member consistently dominates meetings, preventing others from contributing. Which facilitation technique is most appropriate?
- Remove the member from future meetings
- Use structured turn-taking or silent brainstorming techniques (Correct answer)
- Provide positive reinforcement for the dominant member's contributions
- Increase meeting frequency to give others more opportunity
Correct answer: Use structured turn-taking or silent brainstorming techniques
Structured participation techniques like round-robins or silent idea generation equalize contribution without singling out the dominant individual.
Question 7: When a team achieves a goal and is then disbanded, Tuckman's model describes this as which stage?
- Reforming
- Adjourning (Correct answer)
- Transitioning
- Closing
Correct answer: Adjourning
Tuckman later added the Adjourning stage to describe the dissolution of a team after goal completion, which can trigger emotional responses.
CBS Team Building & Development 3
Which psychological concept explains why individuals exert less effort in a group than when working alone?