To Team Or Not To Team

I often insist we need to obsess about the team. This is chiefly because any other structure is either inefficient (the individual) or imaginary (the organisation) when it comes to work.

I’m writing the chapter in the book that is about teams and -partly for procrastination, partly for the pleasure of indulging in intellectual exercises- I spent some time reconsidering why I am so convinced it’s the most important concept we need to rethink everything around. I’ve challenged myself to be empathic towards what looks like outrageous points of view around individualism and the ability to assemble pieces of work in an abstract layer where introverts and those who loathe social interaction aren’t forced to collaborate; I’ve listened to those saying we’ve been forced into the team structure artificially and read all types of definitions and theories regarding everything from how teams are formed to how they perform (or not, as the case may be) together.

And all that exploration later I still believe a team is the most amazing collective manifestation of being human.

Psychological Safety is a team dynamic concept. Agile can only happen in teams. Teams are non-negotiable.

I think we have to start at the definition though. And the secret with that is to not really have a definition but to make it super personal instead. You need everyone IN a team to have a very clear idea of what a team is TO THEM even if those ideas are vastly different as long as they have a few fundamentals in common such as “trust”; “collaboration”; “goodwill” and “common purpose”.