Are you really working in a team?

As we begin this new year, I would like to start with a new but familiar theme that has several dimensions. I will focus my next articles on my favorite aspect of professional life: Teams.

Teams are all around us. Many of you are part of teams, some of you lead teams and some of you are looking to build teams. Question is, how much do we understand about these fundamental units that are building blocks of an organization? When we say teams, do we mean teams or groups? Is there a difference between them and if yes, what is it?

Often, the word team is used loosely to define a group of people, who work together. So, there are Management teams, Marketing teams, Customer Relations teams, Finance teams, Strategy teams, temporary and permanent teams and many more.

Some of these “teams” while forming organizational units do not have shared targets, members collaborate randomly and mainly follow their own set agenda and come together as a set of individuals for exchange. Which per my understanding makes them a group and rather than a team.

Allow me to cite an example from my own experience as former Regional Lead, APAC, with Thrive with Mentoring, a global community of women who support each other to grow professionally and personally through mentoring.

At Thrive, each Cohort of mentors and mentees is led by a few volunteer women who form the Cohort Lead Team. They share the common purpose of ensuring the success of the Cohort and thereby extending the reach of Thrive to more and more professional women. They distribute the accountability for success and are driven by the same agenda.

Each Cohort comprises Mentor and Mentee pairs who enter a six-month mentoring relationship, at the end of which the Mentee is on a growth path where goals that have been set are being achieved.  Each mentoring pair has its own path, journey, and individual agenda.

In this instance, Cohort Leads are a team with their shared purpose and the Mentor-Mentee pairs form a group with their individual agendas.

It is the shared purpose which requires collaboration and coordination that differentiates teams from groups. Team members have complementary skills but are interdependent on each other in the tasks they do and provide mutual support. Teams exist within a larger social structure – in this case Thrive with Mentoring – and are accountable to the organization. Teams raise morale and effectively engage with stakeholders. Interestingly, a group can become a team upon resetting its path and goals.

So, what have you experienced more – working in a true team or in a loosely formed group? Do share your comments and let us have a lively discussion.