Confessions of a Professional: What Really is Team Work?

As you would have guessed from the tone of the header — I am not a fan of the “Team Work” cliché.

Please don’t get me wrong.

I believe that an aligned team with impeccable team work goes places.

My question is — Are we just taking one form of team work and putting it on our corporate pedestal as the only type that works?

As with all issues at hand, we have to have a logical and in-depth debate in order to truly understand the nature of every Best Practice or Gold Standard that is accepted unconditionally. I find it comical that any deviation from the Best Practice would almost always result in an abuse of any kind. Unfortunately, it isn’t too funny at the point where it happens.

One of those issues at hand is “Team Work”.

I don’t actually recall the number of times where I got reprimanded and that “I have to work in a team, as a team”.

I have always scratched my head.

What does that even mean?

As it turns out, most managers in the corporate setting see their teams as a specific type of sports team.

That is the soccer team.

Or the netball team.

Or the water-polo team.

All these ball-related teams have a few things in common: -

1. They are big teams.
2. They have to work together to score.
3. They have various strengths and weaknesses.
4. There is clear specialisation at individual level.
5. There is clear division of labour at the team level.
6. There is a coach cum manager that determines the strategy and sets the direction.
7. None of them is as important as all of them.

These is the way the big sports teams work and we can see this dominant format in Corporate World. The Manager pushes the button and all various arts of the working machine would hum along in a melodious manner.

Is this the only team work format that you know?

If it is — I have bad news for you.

There are other team work formats.

Throughout the observations in my career as a consultant, I think there are at least 2 more.

Let me detail them below.

The 1-Man Team.

Okay, you might not agree with me that the 1-man team is a team because the nature of that word suggests more than 1.

I will not fight the official definition and that is not my intention either.

The point I want to make is this.

As with all sports played with singles (Badminton, Tennis, Table-Tennis) — These games are single player and that doesn’t mean they are alone.

They have coaches and advisors by the side.

The same could be seen in the Corporate World.

Independent Consultants, Entrepreneurs, Freelancers all have one thing in common.

They move solo in their business and they cover their business from end-to-end, from marketing to sales to closing to fulfillment to invoicing. They are a team in them.

And they have a team supporting them outside of the arena.

These teams are commonplace too.

These folks are hunters who needs control over direction and execution.

Placing them into a team where they perform execution-only roles will kill them.

I have no qualms that these groups of folks will be screamed at because “they aren’t team players”.

No.

They can be.

And we have to be clear.

What kind of teams are we referring to?

The Baton-Relay Team.

This is another commonly missed team format.

We can observe this in Track-and-Field.

Remember the 4 x 100 meters relay?

Or the Swim, Bike, Run relay?

This is the dominant format in the realm of endurance sports and partners take turn to race and each has their air-time to take the spotlight.

That is the essence.

It allows for individual team members to take the spotlight during different segments of the game.

This is prevalent in Business in the form of department meetings.

Every department head rises to take the air-time allotted to them for their respective reports. While every department head work on different pieces of the Corporate machinery, they work together precisely because they are working on different parts of the business.

And that may mean the value of their co-operation can only be appreciated at the higher executive level.

In this team, no one issues the command to move or stay still.

Yes, the Chief Executive Office sets the direction.

And he / she stays out of execution.

The department heads have to take the lead, not the command.

In this team, they are a group of people taking charge and leading the charge.

It would be unfortunate if they are looking for orders to execute.

Simply because, there are none.

Simple Takeaway.

I truly believe there is more depth into Team Work.

And the depth of the Team work type determines the way we work more effectively and produce results. It has to be that way. We cannot study for Mathematics the way we study for History.

Different nature, different ways of handling, different results.

There are many, many types of teams and therefore many types of skill sets that are required to be successful in different team formats.

Finally, one thing that we have to recognise.

Being flexible in our approach is the way to go.

Not all games are soccer games.

Not everyone is a soccer player also.

That doesn’t mean we aren’t a team player.

So, please.

Give me a break.

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About the Author:

As a Consultant by training, I believe in making the complex simple.

Because simplicity adds value.

Simplicity helps us gain clarity, and clarity helps us to grow.

And if we are not growing, then what’s the point of anything else?

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