The TEP is best suited for what we call complex teams. Complex teams need to meet, debate topics, and make decisions. They are responsible to the execution of the decisions made. So there is an element of working with ideas to get things done that is central.

Teams that are well suited to the TEP are management teams, cross-functional teams, functional teams, operational teams, project teams, and virtual teams.

Teams that are probably not well suited are airplane flight crews, Navy SEAL teams, jazz ensembles, and sports teams. While these teams all need to score highly in our Team Dynamics areas, the Team Alignment and Meeting Processes elements of our model are less applicable.