What is a True Team?

There are a lot of work groups that call themselves teams but aren't really—and other groups that aren't called teams but really are! Researchers have proven that in most cases, turning a group of workers into a true team can bring remarkable results. So how do you define a true "team?" Scientists differ on the details, but here are some common team characteristics:

• Small size, around five to 15 people.
• High levels of cooperation required for members to complete their work.
• A well-understood sense of purpose.
• A sense of accountability to each other.
• Formal agreements on team behaviors, procedures, and work processes.

These themes apply to any kind of team: permanent functional teams, cross-functional teams (those with people from different disciplines in the company), project teams, task forces, quality circles, and so on. The main alternative to a team has been called a "work group": that is, a group of people bound together by an organizational chart or other artificial means, but not having the characteristics of a team. In some situations, work groups are the most efficient type of organization, such as in sales groups whose members compete with each other for bonuses.

The SuddenTeams^TM Program from TeamTrainers gives a work group the key elements it needs to become a true team and grow into a "high-performance team." Often these teams are "empowered," meaning they have a lot of control over how they accomplish their work. At the highest levels of performance they can become "self-directed" or "autonomous" teams that take on the administrative tasks otherwise done by a team leader. They report as a group to an upper-level manager who does not take part in their work or meetings regularly.

What does a high performance team look like?