HR tech platform, validated by the University of Newcastle, makes its PLUS model diagnostic available at no cost to teams worldwide

SYDNEY, April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — TeamHive (https://team-hive.co/), the evidence-based team effectiveness platform, today announced the public launch of its Free Team Effectiveness Indicator — a diagnostic tool that enables any leader, team member, or team coach to measure their team’s dynamics and effectiveness in under ten minutes, at no cost.

Built on TeamHive’s research-validated PLUS model (Purpose, Learning, Unity, and Shared Leadership), the Free Team Effectiveness Indicator provides an individual-perspective snapshot of how a team functions across the four dimensions that research shows drive team effectiveness and performance. Upon completion, users receive a web-based results summary and PDF report — with the option to invite their full team and stakeholders to complete a comprehensive TeamHive 360 diagnostic.

The launch comes as organisations globally face mounting pressure to improve how teams work together. Despite significant investment in leadership training, engagement surveys, and culture programs, most organisations lack a practical, evidence-based tool designed specifically to diagnose and develop how teams function as a collective unit.

“Teams armed with the right data and tools can develop faster,” said Kimberly Luffman, Founder of TeamHive and Brave Insights. “High-performing teams achieve greater results, becoming more than the sum of their collective efforts — they are genuinely better together. We built TeamHive so that any team or coach, anywhere, can access the same research-backed diagnostic that enterprise clients use to accelerate team development.”

The TeamHive Story: From Practice to Platform

TeamHive was born from more than two decades of practitioner experience. Founder Kimberly Luffman spent over 15 years working with leadership teams across Australia, observing a persistent gap: individual leadership development programs, while valuable, rarely translated into improved collective team performance. Organisations were investing heavily in leaders, engagement surveys, and coaching — but none of these tools were designed to diagnose and improve how a team works together.

A pivotal moment came when Luffman observed a team whose effectiveness far exceeded expectations — not because of a single exceptional leader, but because leadership was distributed across every member. That experience sparked a mission: to understand the conditions that enable teams to become more than the sum of their parts, and to make those conditions measurable and accessible.

Drawing on the work of Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky in adaptive leadership (studied at Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education), Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey’s adult development theories, and Professor Peter Hawkins’ systemic leadership team coaching, Luffman developed an initial framework and prototype survey instrument through her consultancy, Brave Insights (https://www.braveinsights.com/). A pilot study in a financial services company confirmed the approach: team coaching — when grounded in accurate diagnosis — produced substantially greater and more durable impact on long-term behaviour change than individual coaching, peer coaching, or leadership workshops alone.

To bring the platform from prototype to product, Luffman was joined by James Luffman, Executive Director of TeamHive and former founder of Solcast, the global solar data platform that was successfully acquired. James brings deep experience in building research-backed data products at scale, having previously created data infrastructure used by energy systems worldwide.

“When I looked at what Kimberly was building, I recognised the same pattern I’d seen in weather and solar data,” said James Luffman. “There were thousands of consultants and dozens of survey providers — but mostly focused on leadership, culture, or engagement, not on teams as the fundamental unit of performance. TeamHive was a chance to build a differentiated, research-grounded team data asset.”

The PLUS Model: Four Dimensions of Team Effectiveness

At the heart of TeamHive is the PLUS model (https://team-hive.co/blog/plus-team-effectiveness-360-model), a four-dimension framework that measures the collective behaviours, processes, and shared beliefs that drive — or hinder — team effectiveness:

Purpose (P): How a team achieves clear goal alignment, translates that into purpose-driven execution, and maintains a stakeholder-centred view of value. Teams with strong shared purpose consistently outperform those without, distinguishing a real team from a loose working group.Learning (L): How a team engages in collective development, learns through challenge, and creates a peer-supported environment for growth. In TeamHive’s validation research, Learning emerged as the single strongest statistical predictor of team effectiveness.Unity (U): How a team practises constructive communication, builds a psychologically safe environment, and strengthens connection and belonging. Unity goes beyond psychological safety alone — it encompasses the full spectrum of trust, respect, and honest collaboration.Shared Leadership (S): How a team holds collective accountability, distributes leadership work, and actively integrates diverse perspectives. When Shared Leadership is strong, teams don’t wait for one leader to direct — they lead together.

TeamHive also measures Team Outcomes — effectiveness (quality, coordination, reliability) and performance (delivery against expectations and goals). The PLUS dimensions function as the upstream system of drivers that predict those outcomes.

University of Newcastle Validation: Rigorous, Independent Research

The PLUS model and TeamHive 360 diagnostic (https://team-hive.co/product/team-hive-360) were validated through a comprehensive psychometric study conducted in partnership with the University of Newcastle’s School of Psychological Sciences, led by researchers Heather Douglas, Jessika Tisdell, and Emina Subasic.

Key validation findings:

500 full-time working adults surveyed across 12+ industry sectors, including government, healthcare, technology, finance, and educationAn initial 160-question bank was rigorously refined to a 63-question validated core through Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor AnalysisInternal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) between .90 and .94 across all four PLUS dimensions — exceeding established industry standards for individual and team diagnosticsModel fit indices (CFI = .952, TLI = .95) exceeded thresholds for excellence, confirming the superiority of the four-factor PLUS structurePLUS dimensions explained 60% of total variance in team effectiveness and 37% of variance in team performanceSignificant incremental validity: TeamHive 360 captures unique team-level variance not redundant with individual leadership constructs, demonstrating that team diagnostics provide explanatory power beyond individual leadership assessments aloneAn independent expert review panel of eight specialists in leadership, HR, and psychometrics contributed to content validation

Already Delivering Results for Enterprise Clients

While the Free Team Effectiveness Indicator opens access globally, TeamHive’s full platform is already in use with enterprise clients. Most recently, the TeamHive 360 diagnostic was deployed across approximately 40 leaders as part of a High-Performing Teams program with NextEd Group, a publicly listed private education provider, designed and facilitated by Brave Insights.

“We saw a 20% increase in teamwork and a 10% increase in role clarity in our recent employee engagement survey,” said Solange Frost, Regional Director at St Vincent de Paul. “The insights from the diagnostic and the team actions we put in place definitely made an impact.”

“It was incredibly helpful for us to identify and plan how our leadership team could better work together in a very challenging and complex project,” said Fiona Warnock, Strategic HR Business Partner at Interflow.

Free Team Effectiveness Indicator: Key Details

Cost: Free. No credit card required.Time to complete: Approximately 10 minutesWhat it measures: Team dynamics and effectiveness across the four PLUS dimensions (Purpose, Learning, Unity, Shared Leadership)What you receive: Web-based results summary and PDF reportWho it’s for: Team leaders, team members, HR professionals, team coaches, and organisational development specialistsHow to start: Sign up at https://team-hive.co/ 

For organisations seeking deeper insight, the full TeamHive 360 collects input from the entire team and key stakeholders, providing a comprehensive multi-perspective diagnostic with AI-powered coaching via the HiveAI Coach. Standard subscriptions include one TeamHive 360 per team per year, unlimited TeamHive 360 Pulse checks, and full access to HiveAI Coach recommendations.

About TeamHive

TeamHive (https://team-hive.co/) is an evidence-based team effectiveness platform that enables teams to diagnose their dynamics, identify hidden barriers to performance, and accelerate development through data-driven insights. Built on the research-validated PLUS model (Purpose, Learning, Unity, Shared Leadership) and validated by the University of Newcastle’s School of Psychological Sciences, TeamHive provides research-backed diagnostics, AI-powered coaching, and actionable strategies for teams of all sizes. From individual team leaders to enterprise organisations managing hundreds of teams, TeamHive makes the science of team effectiveness practical, scalable, and accessible. TeamHive is a product of Team Development Analytics Pty Ltd, based in Sydney, Australia. Learn more at https://team-hive.co/. 

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SOURCE TeamHive