Definition of teamwork
- 5 min reading
- 4 min activity
It is the end of your shift in a warehouse. You have packed every order on your list. Are you finished? If you think only about your own list, yes. If you think about the team, maybe not: the truck cannot leave until every order is packed.
- Explain the difference between a group and a team.
- See teamwork as shared responsibility, not only "my part".
- Recognise real teams in work, training and daily life.
Group or team?
People can be in the same place without being a team. Five people in a doctor's waiting room are a group. They do not need each other, and nobody is responsible for anyone else's appointment.
A team is different. Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith (1993) studied many teams in companies. They describe a team as a small number of people with skills that complete each other. The members share one purpose and one way of working, and they hold themselves responsible for the result. It is not only the boss who checks.
People are together, but each person works for their own result. Example: shoppers in the same supermarket.
People need each other to reach one shared result, and they share responsibility for it. Example: a cleaning crew that must finish a hotel floor by noon.
Teamwork means working with other people towards a shared goal. Everyone does their part, and everyone also cares about the whole result.
The European Union's skills classification (ESCO) says the same in one line: work "with each doing their part in the service of the whole". For the EU, the ability to "work with others in a constructive way" is a key competence for life and work (Council of the EU, 2018).
Group or team?
Look at each situation. Is it a team: people with a shared goal who need each other and share responsibility?
From "my part" to "our result"
Many of us learned to think about individual performance: I do my tasks, I get my grade, I get my pay. Teamwork adds a second question: is the shared result OK?
Katzenbach and Smith call this mutual accountability. In a group, people think: "The boss checks my work." In a team, people think: "We check our work together."
- "My part is done. How is the whole job going?"
- "Something went wrong. Let's fix it first, then learn from it."
- "I tell the others what they need to know."
- "My part is done. The rest is not my problem."
- "Something went wrong. Who is guilty?"
- "I keep information to myself."
Tesfay, 22, from Eritrea, washes pans in a hotel kitchen in Milan. At 21:00 his pans are clean. He sees that the dessert cook has no clean plates. He asks: "My pans are done. Do you need plates?" Nobody told him to. Dessert goes out on time, and the chef notices.
Shared responsibility does not mean that one person carries everything. It means that everyone cares about the result. Fair sharing of the work is part of teamwork too, and you will learn more about it in Units 2 and 3.
"My part is finished. Is there anything else the team needs?" "I saw that the plates are running out. Should I bring more?"
At the end of a shift, a class or a task, ask one person in your team: "My part is done. Does anything still need doing for the whole job?" Notice how they react.
- Team
- People who need each other to reach a shared goal and share responsibility for the result.
- Group
- People who are together but work for their own results.
- Shared responsibility
- Everyone cares about the whole result, not only their own part.
- Mutual accountability
- Team members check the result together, not only the boss.
In short
- A group is people together; a team is people who need each other for one shared result.
- Teamwork means doing your part and caring about the whole.
- In a team, people hold themselves responsible, not only the boss.
- Shared responsibility does not mean one person does everything.
Sources
- Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (1993). The discipline of teams. Harvard Business Review, 71(2), 111-120.
- European Commission (n.d.). ESCO skill: work in teams. European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations.
- Council of the European Union (2018). Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018 on key competences for lifelong learning (2018/C 189/01).