Question

What is the differences between groups and teams? How do we convert a group to a team? What benefits might come from this conversion in a business environment?

Answer 1

When two or more individuals interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives, it is termed as a Group. It could be a Formal Group where a designated work group is defined by the organization’s structure or an Informal Group where a group that is neither formally structured is now organizationally determined and appears in response to the need for social contact. Various other groups include:

Command Group: A group composed of the individuals who report directly to a given manager.

Task Group: Those working together to complete a job or task.

Interest Group: Those working together to attain a specific objective with which each is concerned.

Friendship Group: Those brought together because they share one or more common characteristics.

People join groups for Security, Status, Self-esteem, Affiliation, Power and Goal Achievement.

On the other hand, Team is a group whose individual efforts result in a performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs. The Goals of the Group is to share information while that of the Team is to go for a collective performance. The synergy of the group is neutral and at times negative too while that in case of a Team is Positive. The Accountability factor in case of Group is that of Individual while in case of Team, it is individual and mutual as well. The skills in case of a group is random and varied while in case of Team is Complementary. Following are the types of Team:

Problem-Solving Teams: Groups of 5 to 12 employees from the same department who meet for a few hours each week to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency, and the work environment.

Self-Managed Work Teams: Groups of 10 to 15 people who take on the responsibilities of their former supervisors.

Cross-Functional Teams: Employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task.

Virtual Teams: Teams that use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal.

Following are the steps to convert a group to a team:

• Involvement of the right members in the team in the sense that the skills and the experience complement each other in terms of the hard skills requirement while in terms of the soft skills also, the communication should also be done effectively by the members in order to ensure there is smooth conversion of the Group members to now, the Team members.
• Everybody should be motivated towards the achievement of the overall Team goal which could be framed either by the Leader or by involving every member in the ‘Goal-setting’ process.
• Assignment of the roles of each of the members, the time-line to accomplish the tasks assigned to each of them, their overall duties and the people who help could be sought, shall also help in converting the group members to Team members.
• The overall mutual cooperation and accountability is also essential to convert the Group to a Team.
• Learning from the past mistakes, reporting the current processes or achievements, celebrating the milestones of success, etc. are all such activities that shall help the members to come together and work as a Team instead of simply a Group.

By undertaking the above, following are the benefits that might come from this conversion in a business environment:

• Orderly resolving of conflicts since there shall be mutual support gained by each other in a Team.
• Common goals shall help in achieving the same in a time-bound manner.
• When the hard skills compliment the soft skills, more efficiency could be obtained in the process of realizing the goals because the obstacles could be dealt with well using these skills.
• Since members would participate in the goal-setting or achieving process, the spirit of belongingness would risen in the Organization and thereby the level of commitment towards the same.
• More coordination would lead to more motivated members in the Team who would in turn help to realize the Business goals with ease, dedication and diligence.