Do You Lead A Group Or A Team?

If there is one thing I've learned in management over the years, it is that the word "Team" is highly overused and misused. As an additional knowledge, the term team connotes or describes an organization of people who report in a hierarchy to one single person. It is limiting our ability to see other types of workgroups as "teams". The best way to have a successful group is to let them work as a team with common ideas and objectives. Because of this, they will definitely come up with a better idea for the success of the work.

The term "team" have a definite meaning. "Teams" are synergistic - they produce a total that is greater than the sum of its parts. They consist of a group of people who:

1. Share a common goal (or goals). 2. They do have interdependent roles and responsibilities with each other. 3. Hold a common behavioural approach and action plan to achieving the goal.

Teams therefore are a group of people with a shared mandate, who rely on each other to be successful individually, and who must work together to accomplish the task at hand. A very good example is the Sports team.

You, on the other hand, might relate more to the definition of a workgroup. Workgroups means that a leader has various direct reports and none of these have to do anything about its role in the group. Workgroups comprises of a group of people who :

1. Have individual, unrelated goals. 2. Work independently from one another because they have no need for interdependence in accomplishing their goals. 3. Can develop their own unique work approach to achieving their goal, and nobody else will care.

A very good example for this is the US Olympic track and Field "team." Together, they have a common goal of getting the most track and field gold medals at the Olympics. In order to achieve this, they have common trainings and along with this is the emotional preparation.

Did you know that the Olympic team has sub-components which consist of teams and of groups. The two groups are the relay team and the group of sprinters. The relay team creates synergy - they have a common goal of winning their race, they are interdependent on one another to pass the baton, and they work closely together to train and prepare for the big event. The sprinting group on the other hand are each in it for their own individual glory. They do have their individual races. The success of a group is seen through its production of output. As compared to four individual sprinters running alone, the synergy team allows to have longer time and distances in running. That is the magic of a "team". It produces the sum total of the production that they do.

Workgroups can often function highly effectively without much need for team meetings and team building events. Teams on the other hand require a higher frequency of communication and problem solving. Some members prefer to have a one-on-one conversation with their boss about their own concerns per say. Teams on the other hand should be encouraged to set annual team and individual objectives together, and should be meeting regularly to check on their collective progress towards those objectives.

With this new understanding of teams and groups, you can now take hierarchy out of the equation. Organizations are increasingly becoming what I call "teaming" organizations. Workgroups of cross-functional individuals who report to different people, coming together on projects or in processes to produce an output that no one of them could produce individually. By coming together, their job is to produce the output in the most efficient and highest quality way possible.

What are they doing for the progress of their workload? Groups start with choosing a leader that would lead them to the progress of the work. This is important because the "leader" may in fact have people on the team who are at the same or higher levels than he/she in the hierarchy. The leader must be responsible for the following.

1. The group must always have a common objective and aim for the success of the work that they are doing. 2. Ensuring everyone is clear on their role and the role of each other person on the team. Especially to ensure everyone understands where the interdependencies are so that any bottlenecks are resolved before or immediately as soon as they become a problem. 3. Co-creating an action plan (or project plan or process map) and common behavioural approach with the team. From time to time, your leader should monitor the progress of every workload done. He should also call meetings.

We should take note that organizations consists of many complex structures and people. It is ok to have both teams and groups in the hierarchy. The "teams" should create various areas of the hierarchy. It is not easy to be a "group leader" or a "team leader". It entails a lot of decision making and rigid analysis and development. Do whatever suitable management plan in order to have a successful group.

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