I take issue with the fashionable nature of the term “team”. Many books have been written. Business people, we men in particular, seem to like sports and war metaphors to describe business realities. My issue is that pretty much every group of people working together in any organization now is referred to as a team. A limited number actually function as high performing teams.
I would like to shred every single one of those pithy team oriented motivational posters – “There is no I in team.”
We need smart capable people who can work effectively with others. We do not need to dumb-down individuality for the sake of team harmony. Give smart people the skill and forum to disagree. Create the clarity of mission and level of trust that makes for productive disagreement and you’ve got something of value.
The simple use of the term ‘team’ does not make a group of people working together a team. What does make it so is solid leadership and a deliberate approach at the outset. There is a “go slow to go fast” component in setting up a new team or reinvigorating an existing team. Smart capable people do well on high performing teams. Good leaders know how to build and maintain them. I’m the Outsider and that’s what I think.
