The main functions of Team Mental Models are improved planning, coordination and alignment between team members which materializes in an increased team performance.
More specifically, Rouse et al. (1992) defined three main function of Team Mental Models you should take into consideration.
The Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology defines an SMM as: “shared understandings or representations of the goal of the team, individual team member tasks, and how team members will coordinate to achieve their common goals; individual team members can have varying degree of overlap or 'sharedness' among their mental
A mental model is a representation of someone's thought process about how something works.
It is a concept, framework or worldview that someone develops in their mind to help them interpret their surroundings and understand the relationship between things.