There's no "I" in team

I often wonder about team work within the office environment.  It seems that the usual question in interviews is “are you able to work as part of a team?”  I tried to think of an example that I could give to support myself as being a team player.  It was actually quite difficult.

The definition of team is to “come together as a team to achieve a common goal”.  I have in the past managed a team, but when I think back although it was a group of people working together, was it in fact a team?  Each individual had their own tasks to complete, which they could do without the help of other members of the team.  Yes there was support for each other, and, camaraderie, but was it really a team in the definition of the term?  It almost feels like team was just a buzz word that had to be used, and, by using it, the organisation felt it was being modern, and, employees would achieve more and feel valued.  Although I managed a team, I could have said it was also a collective, but I suppose a collective meeting doesn’t sound as snappy as a team meeting! 

The times when I really acted as part of a team were when I was co-opted to assist with specific ad hoc projects, where you would come together with other disciplines (legal, finance, information technology, etc.) to achieve or implement something that would benefit the organisation as a whole.  It was always my experience though that this sort of team didn’t always work.  You could always guarantee one member would hold the team back with usually the excuse they didn’t have enough time to undertake the work they had been allocated.  This boils down to the fact all members of this type of team have different managers, who have different priorities.  At this stage the team is only as good as the weakest member, and, this member brings down the rest of the team.

Gary Busey in the UK celebrity big brother show came out with an interesting take on the acronym of TEAM – Together Everyone Achieves More.  I can see how this may work in certain situations, but I don’t believe it is applicable to every scenario.  I can envisage cases where one member of a team may be so bad that they actually hinder the progress, and, by removing  them may help achieve better results.

So we come back to the classic interview question from the beginning of the post.  Are you able to work as part of a team?  I wonder how many people have answered no to this?  In fairness I prefer to work alone, so I trust myself, and, get the work done.  If anything goes wrong you only have yourself to blame.  In asking you to work as a team you have to have a clear set of goals and objectives you are expected to achieve along with strong management.  Management should always be quick to act where they see failure.

Maybe team work is not appropriate to all situations, and, people should be more accepting that it may not be a cure for all evils.