We measure group health based partly on Google’s re:Work principles on team health. We also sought expert advice from Holly Hammond to have principles included in our measurement specific to social movements. Extensive research found healthy teams weren’t a collection of the best-qualified or most highly-skilled. Rather, the best functioning teams were ones where team-members felt safe to suggest new ideas, admit to mistakes, work through issues together and had a clear idea of how their work contributed to overarching goals and strategies.
Google found the number one influence on team health was psychological safety, followed by dependability, structure & clarity, meaning of work and impact of work. Based on other research around social movements (including Hahrie Han’s work), ACF also measures group growth & retention, diversity, leadership development, sustainability of the work and network density.
You can read more about each of these indicators of group health here.