Intervening when the time is right: How the timing of formal interventions affects group process and decisions.

While scholars and practitioners have explored what to do when intervening to help novice groups, there has been considerably less attention paid to when to do it. This paper explores how the timing of process interventions impacts group decision-making processes and outcomes. In two laboratory experiments, I tested the extent to which groups altered their processes in response to interventions received at various times during their first task. In Study 1, I found that groups that received interventions during the early stages of their discussions shared more information than did groups who received interventions before beginning discussion, which indirectly affected the quality of their decisions. In Study 2, I compared early, in-process interventions to interventions received at the temporal midpoint of the first task and found that groups receiving interventions at the temporal midpoint of their first task improved their initial processes and outcomes, relative to control, while groups receiving earlier interventions did not. However, in a subsequent task, both early and midpoint interventions led to improved decisions, as groups receiving interventions decreased in the amount they advocated for individual member preferences. The implications of these studies for research on group development, collective decision- making, and team coaching is discussed.