13 January 2018 
We are featuring the work of Gabriele Galassi as he has researched the effectiveness of using the Daily Temperature Reading process with teams in companies. Gabriele specializes in people assessment, team dynamics, managements and leadership. Before working as an independent consultant, he managed the global L&D division of sales at BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of BBC.
His study sets out to explore the application of the DTR as a communication tool to foster cohesion in work teams. Cohesion in teams can be an important predictor of performance and it is often associated with goal setting activity and agreement around the tasks that the team needs to perform.
In his study, two groups performed respectively a daily exercise following the Temperature Reading and sharing feedback with each other, and a goal setting exercise, agreeing on objectives each day.
The sample consisted of a group of 24 advertising students, divided in groups of 6 teams each (each team composed of art director and a copy-writer) and the experiment had a duration of two weeks.
The mean scores of the participants at the end of the study revealed a statistically significant improvement in the perception of Team Cohesion for the group carrying out the Daily Temperature Reading and a (non-significant) improvement in the perception of the quality of exchange between team members. The mean scores for the comparison group, carrying out a goal setting exercise, reported an
increased perception of the Team Member Exchange quality and a decreased perception in Team Cohesion.
This study offers initial empirical evidence to the integration of a communication model such as the Daily Temperature Reading as a work practice to foster cohesion and help employees communicate
more effectively.