By Paul Plotczyk, President, WSA

Project team, special project team, product team, task team, my team, your team – wherever two or more are assembled we are tempted to call it a team. We continually find groups of people calling themselves teams even though they lack the fundamental ingredients for team performance and effective team behavior.

We are not the “team” police but when you call yourselves a team and really aren't, no good can come of it:

• People get frustrated and would rather just do it themselves
• Morale descends to all-time lows
• Expectations are not met
• Project deadlines get missed
• Goals are not reached
• Peak performance is squandered

What Makes a Team, a Team?

A team is a group of individuals (at least two) who:

• agree to work together to achieve a common set of goals;
• place those common goals above their personal goals; and
• require interdependent activities to achieve those common goals.

Common Goals vs. Individual Goals

A team is a group of individuals whose common goals supersedes individual goals. This criterion of being a team seems obvious enough. For example we often bring together a “team” of people for important projects such as a new product launch. We usually include representatives from key functional areas – marketing, finance, manufacturing, sales, customer service, etc.

Sounds like a good approach. But unless work is done to ensure that these people become an actual team, the individuals' goals -- their habit of protecting the interest of the functional group they represent-- will likely supersede the common goal of an on-time product release.

In this scenario you can almost guarantee that no product will be released on time. Cross-functional integrated processes and services will be difficult to develop and competition for resources will heat up.

However, if you reallocate those individuals to a specifically defined team for a set period of time and redirect their goals, measures and reward systems to reflect the common product release goals, the team will achieve dramatically different results.

Interdependence vs. Independence

Team members must need each other to perform their own individual work successfully and the results of individual work must be integrated in order for the team goal to be achieved.

If a goal can be achieved by one person assigning tasks to different people who work independently to complete the job there is no need for a team. The core requirement of interdependence is not met.

On the other hand, if each team member's work is woven into the work of the other team members, the conditions have now changed. If one team member's failure to meet schedule requirements impacts another team member's ability to meet a schedule, interdependence has been established. Under these circumstances a real team is required to achieve the common goals.

Executive teams should serve as a good example of a group who must work together as a team to achieve their common goals. However, too often this is not the case. Sales is often only concerned with revenue, manufacturing with schedules, finance with cost controls, etc.

There is a mistaken belief that if each group does ‘their part' everything will work out fine. Unfortunately just the opposite is often true. The various groups affect one another's performance. By working on problems separately, the organization takes a linear approach to systemic problems, and fails to fix the issue systemically. Thus the problem continues or escalates. Individuals blame one another and overall goals are not reached. This is a consequence of failing to understand and act upon the fundamental interdependence of a team.

Are You a Team?

If you have managed to create a group of individuals who support the common goals of the team over their individual goals and have established interdependence, then congratulations you have yourself a team.

If you are struggling to establish one or both of the core team criteria, look for the next issue of LeadingUpset where we will outline the 6 challenges of building a team and how to overcome them.

Note: This is the first in a series of articles regarding teams. Over the next few months we will address issues such as: How to Build High Performing Teams, Knowing When You Need a Team and When You Don't, Using IT to Manage Virtual Teams, How to Get Peak Performance from Self-Directed Teams.