Teams have been defined as a small group of people with complementary skills committed to a common purpose and specific performance goals. The work of real teams requires collaboration and interdependence among team members. This means that the leadership role tends to shift among team members rather than remain static. And it means that people with different jobs and skill sets must work together in a coordinated effort, and at the same time, to be effective.
Contrast this description with the way working groups function. In such groups, work is a sum of individual contributions and the assigned tasks aren’t really interdependent. Such groups usually have one permanent leader, and tasks are performed in series (like an assembly line) rather than in parallel.
Calling a team a team doesn’t make it one. Most teams are really working groups that lack the strategy, structure, processes, and support to raise performance. Worse still performance-wise are committees, boards, and dreaded compromise/consensus units that pose as teams. These kinds of ineffective groups tend to occur in organizations that force-fit teams into settings or situations where they don’t belong, e.g., where the work could be better done by a qualified individual.
The Importance of Real Teams Today
As many organizations become less hierarchical and bureaucratic in keeping with the knowledge and information age, the need for teams keeps growing. This means that the capacity of an organization to build and utilize teams can become a major competitive advantage. Real teams might be the sharpest tool modern organizations have for upping performance. More than any other organizational structure, effective teams offer the flexibility and power to respond quickly to change.
Our Team Building Focus Areas
- Team Design & Formation
- Team Development
- Team Communication
- Team Roles & Processes
- Team Morale & Engagement
- Team Performance Tune-Ups
- Creative Team Development
- Leadership Team Development