I can’t imagine the world without teams. Teams, or at least working groups, are everywhere – not just in the workforce or at school. According to Katzenbach and Smith, the main difference between the two is that teams require both individual and mutual accountability, whereas groups are more focused around individual accountability. There are times when having working groups is sufficient enough but more often than not, these working groups just do not cut it. For example, when I used to dance, my dance school entered ‘team’ competitions. There was a reason why they were called team competitions and not group competitions. If one dancer were focused on his or her personal best and outshining the rest, the team could never win because it would lack cohesion. Another example is my parents, who share the common goal of supporting and raising my sister and I. They are both in charge – although sometimes they would beg to differ – and it is not about how my mom performs as a mom or my dad as a dad.
Teams are everywhere and are important and necessary to achieve the desired outcome but yet, are sometimes dreaded. It’s probably because everyone who has ever worked on a team has had at lease one bad experience, usually of two extremes: a teammate does not contribute at all or a teammate wants to be in full control and do everything. Katzenbach and Smith said that “two critical aspects of effective teams [are] commitment and trust” and I could not agree more. I think it is because of these two elements – or the lack of them – that bad experiences happen.
Although there is a saying that there is no I in team, the ‘I’ needs to be there; accountability must happen on both team and individual levels. Free rider problems occur when members do not commit to their individual work, thinking that someone else on the team will pick up their slack. If that was the mindset of every member on a team, that team would not get anything done. So, it is not enough to commit to a team; each member must also commit to the particular part he or she plays on the team as well. However, the ‘I’ must be kept in check. If the presence of ‘I’ is too strong, it not only defeats the purpose of having a team but also damages the trust that exists among teammates. Commitment and trust reinforce each other. When members are committed, trust is naturally created. When trust is in place, members are more likely to deliver because of the expectations that are placed upon them.
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I’ve had my fair share of bad team experiences but that has not been the case so far in D.Studio. When we divide up and allocate the work, I know that each person will deliver. There is no one person spearheading the project but it has been a real group effort. We come with different ideas, which is great, and we discuss, modify and try to create something that will work. Although we’ve faced some difficulties working on the Workshop, I think they actually made us work together better as a team. We shared in our frustration of there being lack of flexibility on the business’s part. Also, the fact that our schedules differ and setting up a meeting is difficult made each member more committed to his or her individual task.