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Posts Tagged ‘teams’

Recently I was reading a wonderful book “Facilitating with Ease!” by Ingrid Bens.  In the introduction portion of the book she list definitions two of which really struck a chord with me:  Group and Team. 

Group:  a collection of individuals who come together to share information, coordinate their efforts or achieve a task, but who mainly pursue their own individual goals and work independently.

Team:  a collection of individuals who are committed to achieving a common goal, who support each other; who fully utilize member resources and who have closely linked roles.

These two words are often used interchangeably, when they are actually so different and I believe that was the source of some recent frustration I’ve been experiencing.  It was an AH-HA moment for me. 

Being very collaborative and having extremely positive experiences in team situations in the past I tend to expect and push towards creating teams.  I was operating from a team building perspective when I really should have operating in a group perspective.  What a relief it was for me to grasp that concept and reformulate my working process with those individuals.  I’m confident that the outcome will be to everyone’s benefit.

This reflection gave me pause to think about how I’m working together with people in all areas of my life and how I use these words.  Upon reflection I find I give working in a group a negative connotation.  Hmmmm, why?  Both are important, have their purpose and create wonderful outcomes.

What are the types of situations do you prefer to operate in?