Teams: We have all been part of it, whether we like(d) it or not..
During my corporate years, I’ve been fortunate enough to work in a variety of international teams, some more high performing than others. I’ve learned that some teams are more naturally inclined towards high performance than others.
The word ‘team’ has been used interchangeably with ‘groups’. Hence, I believe it is a prerequisite to start with the definition of a team, before deepdiving in the concept of high performance teams.
The scientific definition used for a team, stems from a publication by Katzenbach and Smith (1993)1: “A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable.”
Teams have a shared responsibility and members are dependent on each other to complete a collective product or service and thereby achieve success together. Additionally, team members are connected to each other first, the task comes second.
In a group, members have their own responsibility which is prevailing the shared responsibility. As a consequence, decisions are made by individuals instead of a collective decision by all. Typically, a group of individuals is connected because of their tasks.
In short, a team of individuals is very much different from a group of individuals.
“A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable.”
The following questions might help you to determine in what environment you are operating:
- Are you doing something together that can’t be done alone?
- Do you deliver on a specific purpose by working together?
- Are you holding yourself accountable?
- Do you carry out the work yourself / collectively?
- Do you measure performance by assessing your collective work?
The more “Yes” you answered to any of the above questions, the bigger the likelihood you are actually working in a team. If you can answer all questions with “Yes”, then consider yourself blessed! :)
This is not to say that working in groups is less beneficial. In organizations where individual accountability prevails, because this helps each individual to perform better, groups can be as effective.
For more about high performing teams, read more here about the 3 factors that distinguish high performance teams.
Are you working in a group of in a team?
Photo by Pascal Swier on Unsplash
1 https://hbr.org/1993/03/the-discipline-of-teams-2
Teams: We have all been part of it, whether we like(d) it or not..
During my corporate years, I’ve been fortunate enough to work in a variety of international teams, some more high performing than others. I’ve learned that some teams are more naturally inclined towards high performance than others.
The word ‘team’ has been used interchangeably with ‘groups’. Hence, I believe it is a prerequisite to start with the definition of a team, before deepdiving in the concept of high performance teams.
The scientific definition used for a team, stems from a publication by Katzenbach and Smith (1993)1: “A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable.”
Teams have a shared responsibility and members are dependent on each other to complete a collective product or service and thereby achieve success together. Additionally, team members are connected to each other first, the task comes second.
In a group, members have their own responsibility which is prevailing the shared responsibility. As a consequence, decisions are made by individuals instead of a collective decision by all. Typically, a group of individuals is connected because of their tasks.
In short, a team of individuals is very much different from a group of individuals.
“A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable.”
The following questions might help you to determine in what environment you are operating:
- Are you doing something together that can’t be done alone?
- Do you deliver on a specific purpose by working together?
- Are you holding yourself accountable?
- Do you carry out the work yourself / collectively?
- Do you measure performance by assessing your collective work?
The more “Yes” you answered to any of the above questions, the bigger the likelihood you are actually working in a team. If you can answer all questions with “Yes”, then consider yourself blessed! :)
This is not to say that working in groups is less beneficial. In organizations where individual accountability prevails, because this helps each individual to perform better, groups can be as effective.
For more about high performing teams, read more here about the 3 factors that distinguish high performance teams.
Are you working in a group of in a team?
Photo by Pascal Swier on Unsplash
1 https://hbr.org/1993/03/the-discipline-of-teams-2
