Why competitive individualism needs

to be replaced by teamwork
By J. Allyn Bradford

In todays workplace project leaders need to solve

intricate problems and to take ideas from an initial
stage through a series of complex processes to a
successful completion. This kind of work cannot be
done alone. There are just too many demands, task
requirements and varied sources of information
required to do it without the support of others.

The following incident illustrates the limitations of

competitive individualism and how it can be
replaced by teamwork:

Jeannie was a highly efficient, aggressive,

competitive Vice President. But her project team
was in disarray. Though he had an MBA from a
prestigious university on the East Coast, she knew
nothing about teamwork. Her attitude was that

she was the boss and others were expected others

to comply. They didnt.

One Monday morning she was called into the

CEOs office. "Get them to work together or youre
fired!" was what Jeannie heard. Upon hearing this,
Jeannie was bright enough to find ways to
completely re-orient herself and her team. The
results were astonishing.

She and her team learned how to listen with

empathy, build ideas together and support each
other in achieving individual goals. She made an
180 degree turn from the old, command and
control model to one which was interactive,
supportive and cooperative. As a result, her team
became number one in the company.

Though it has a happy ending, this brief account of

an actual experience indicates how an obsolete
model of leadership can alienate the best resource
we have: the people who work cooperatively with
us.

"In our present time, we must begin to celebrate

collective entrepreneurship", says Robert Reich,
the economist, in an article describing how the
team, not the individual, is the hero. To make our
corporate systems work, he says, we need
"endeavors in which the whole of the effort is
greater than the sum of individual contributions.
We need to honor our teams more, our aggressive
leaders and maverick geniuses less." (Reich 77-78)

According to Reich, the "myth of individualism"

came into our culture through the popular stories
of Horatio Alger in the last century. Ragged Dick,
the hero of these stories, rose from a lowly station
in life by dint of individual effort to earn a
respectable job and the promise of a better life.
The heroic individual became our cultural ideal.

The dominant corporate culture still promotes the

tradition of heroic individualism in which the boss
gets credit for what others have done. The strong
focus we have on individual achievement in our
culture discounts other people and how we need
them to accomplish our goals. No wonder so many
people feel depressed in the workplace today!
They are, as Reich indicates, overburdened by the
weight of an outworn cultural myth.

In her insightful book about contemporary

organizations Margaret Wheatley says that:
"Loneliness has pervaded not only our science, but
whole cultures. In America we have raised
individualism to its highest expression, each of us
protecting our boundaries, asserting our rights,
creating a culture that leaves the individual
suspended in glorious, but terrifying isolation."
(Wheatley 30)

We have all learned at home at school and on the

job to compete as individuals for awards, attention
and prizes. But the reality is that, more often than
not, it is through teamwork that we get things
done.

Though the myth of individualism proclaimed that

the key to the great "American Dream" was to be
found through individual competition, it is really
not so. To be a lone individual without support,
surrounded by adversaries, in the corporate
culture is more like an American Nightmare.

Working Together

Team skills are quite different from those of

competing individuals. They involve cooperation,
mutual support and accountability to the team.
These skills are needed in families for members to
support and encourage each other. They are also
needed at school for students to learn together.
And they are needed on the job in managing
projects, making informed decisions and solving
intricate problems.

These skills can expand limited resources, develop

new ideas and to build viable relationships An
individual alone has but a limited perception of the
range of possibilities in a situation. A team taps
into a variety of perceptions and so widens the
scope of available information, options and ideas.
When various heads come together in teamwork-which means listening, developing ideas and
building on each others insights--not only are
more ideas generated but also a mutual
acceptance and trust builds among the
participants through the interaction.

The quality and effectiveness of individual

strategies is also greatly enhanced when team
members constructively question each others

thought process. A team can help clarify hidden

factors, such as the nature of the resistance or the
level of trust in a particular situation. The
interaction that comes from working and thinking
together in a team also helps an individual avoid
making assumptions that are not reality based.
Team members do this by asking questions such
as: "Is the data sufficient?" "Is it accurate?" or
"What is the source?"

For example, a Customer Education department I

worked with in a Midwestern corporation assumed
quite naturally that their teaching was up to date.
That was until one member of their education
team happened to overhear some customers
questioning whether they were getting the right
information on how to run the expensive, new
equipment they had just bought. At this point
questions, like those indicated above, were raised.
When they checked it out, they were shocked to
find that their instructions were out of date.
Consequently, with the help of upper management,
they set up an interdepartmental team to keep
them current in their presentations about
company products consisting of representatives
from engineering, marketing and production. If
any of their educational materials were inaccurate

or out of date, it would show up at these meetings,

not in presentations to customers.

Team Learning
Of course not all teams are well organized. Nor do
all team members understand the real meaning of
teamwork. A poorly organized team probably
functions worse than a collection of competing
individuals.

Teams need to learn certain skills as a team to

function effectively. Peter Senge coined the phrase
"team learning" to show how teams go through the
steps in the learning process together, not just as
individuals. That means they are willing to
experiment and learn from their results by sharing
insights, reflecting on outcomes and really
listening to each other.

According to A. J. Chopra, an expert in innovative

team process, "If you use peoples heads in a good
way, theyll let you borrow their hearts." You do
this, Chopra says, by really listening for what is of
value in what they say. "New ideas rarely come to

mind fully formed, so they are vulnerable to

attack. To voice such ideas is to risk being
ridiculed or thought impractical or even
irresponsible. If people feel that they can take
such risks with you in a way that is not only safe
but productive, then working with you becomes a
positive experience." (Chopra 10-12)

Teams learn to function effectively when they

provide much needed guidance and support to
individual members. Teams can fill the gap left by
the downsizing of middle managers. As teams fill
this gap, they give individuals a place to belong in
the organizational system.

How Teams Fill the Gap

According to the book, Wisdom of Teams "a real
team autonomously develops it own common
purpose, performance goals, working approach
and methods for mutual accountability" In other
words, they organize themselves. This stands in
contrast to "pseudo teams" which call themselves
teams but are really just competing individuals."
(Katzenbach and Smith 61-64)

Team members can help each other by developing

a system for supporting their individual goals.
After setting their team performance goals a selforganizing team can set then cooperate in
achieving their individual goals. If team members
really do learn how to develop and train each
other, their competence will improve and so will
their morale and their performance as well.

Real teams provide the support individuals need to

manage their way through the complex problems
and issues that confront them. It is a lot easier to
get recognition and help from the members of
your team than it is to try to get the attention of a
boss that is too busy to give you the time.

Becoming a "member" of a team is important to

new people, in an organization too. New hires are
keenly sensitive to signals that indicate how they
will be treated by others. They carefully watch
how others respond to what they say and do
because they know that the way they get treated
will largely determine their success in the
organization

A well functioning team interacts directly with its

members in an intermeshed set of relationships
based on trust that constantly gives support and
guidance to the individuals involved. When this
happens, individual performance in the team
exceeds what any one of them could do alone.

Professionals
The role of people at work today has shifted from
a passive one in which they followed orders, to an
active one in which they take informed risks.
Those once known as "Workers" in the old
bureaucratic system, have become "Professionals"
in todays complex workplace. That calls for the
use of initiative by well informed people who can
make intelligent decisions. (Hammer 1-15)

These professionals need teams to manage

complex processes, to network with a variety of
resources and to do creative problem solving.
Teams provide the means, as well as the practice
and coaching required to achieve competence in
doing these things, as noted before.

Teams do not replace the traditional

organizational structure. Rather they work within
it to offer individuals a more dynamic process and
a creative energy flow throughout the
organization.

For example, the administrative personnel of a

mid-sized company I worked with on the East Cost
created an innovative new process in their
organization system: a problem solving support
group. These administrators were people who
work as secretaries and receptionists. They had
never before met as team. But, in the midst of a
training program, they used a little creative
imagination to create a new entity. Now they meet
once a week with their supervisor to help each
other solve the problems they have with
indifferent bosses, irate clients and unreliable
suppliers. They fine tune their problem solving
skills as they work together on their own real
issues.

Synergy
As noted above, synergy can multiply a teams
resources far beyond the limitations of the

individual contributors. It happens when team

members work cooperatively to share ideas,
recognize the value of each member's contribution
and jointly craft those ideas into viable options.

In a recent book on biology and social systems,

Kevin Kelly points out how a single honey bee can
do nothing by itself. But in the hive it becomes
part of a highly productive operation to make
honey. There occurs in this process, Kelly says, "a
hive mind" consisting of many individual bees
working together collectively. (Kelly 11).

Synergy multiplies the resources of team members

through the interaction of a variety of contributors
who see a problem from diverse perspectives.
When this happens the collective brain, or what
Kelly would call the "hive mind", of the team takes
on an enriched and enlarged life of its own which
is exciting to all involved and can produce highly
innovative results.

"Our team is like a blueberry pancake" a member

of a creative team on the West Coast once told me
during a training session. He was speaking of how
leadership operates in his team. "Its flat", he said.

"Were all equal. But there are the blueberries.

They are the ones who get the action going."
Taking initiative in setting a goal and making a
commitment to bring about constructive results
puts a person in a leadership role, like those
"blueberries".

Peter Block, a prominent organizational

consultant, describes this kind of leadership in
terms of commitment to a personal vision: "The
essence of political skill is building support", he
says. "This takes place through dialogue and the
most compelling dialogue we can have is about
our vision. Leadership is keeping others focused
on our vision and this means we have to get
comfortable talking about it." (Block 121 )

A New Model for Leadership

A model invented and promoted by Synectics, Inc.,
a Cambridge consulting firm, works effectively for
the kind of leadership Block describes.

The Synectics model actually requires dual

leadership to make their process work: one person

facilitates the process, the other is committed the

to the pursuit of a vision or a goal. The team
members work together to generate ideas to help
the one with the goal create a viable achievement
strategy to implement his or her vision.

In this model individuals readily set goals that are

aligned with team and organizational objectives.
Even though most new ideas are incomplete and
easily destroyed, as noted previously, skillful
facilitation can manage the process to create an
environment that allows creativity to flourish.

This process works best if the facilitator rotates

from one meeting to the next. That way fresh
energy comes with each new process leader. Of
course it can be quite a challenge for some team
members to facilitate the process for the first time,
but with help from the team they can readily
acquire the needed skills, as in the previous
example of the administrative personnel team.

A group of engineers in the Department of Public

Works I worked with in a small town in Eastern
Massachusetts exemplified how well this process
can work by the way they embraced it. They were

all union, with the traditional attitudes of that

group. None of them had ever conducted a
meeting before. But when they learned how to
work this process, their productivity soared
because they realized they could solve their
problems by themselves better than management
could do it for them.

Conclusion
With the support of management, and by working
cooperatively, effective teams can readily help
individuals adapt to new situations, solve intricate
problems, multiply their resources and create
constructive change in the workplace. Individuals
are most effective when they do not work alone
but with others on a team.

J. Allyn Bradford is a consultant, specializing in

Team Effectiveness, who has worked with over 25
major corporations in the US and abroad. Allyn
Bradford
Sources:

Block, P.: The Empowered Manager, Jossey-Bass,

1990
Chopra, A.J.: Managing the People Side of
Innovation, Kumarian Press, 1999
Hammer, M.: Re-Engineering the Corporation,
Harper Business, 1993
Katzenbach and Smith: The Wisdom of Teams,
Harper Business,1993
Kelley, K: Out of Control, The New Biology of
Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic
World, Addison-Wesley, l994
Reich, R. The Harvard Business Review,
Entrepreneurship Reconsidered, The Team as
Hero, May-June 1987
Nolan,V: The Innovators Handbook, Problem
Solving, Communication and Teamwork, Penguin
Books, 1989
Wheatley, M.: Leadership and the New Science,
Berrett-Koehler, 1994
1.
2.
3.

Small Business >

Managing Employees >
Teamwork

Characteristics of Effective Teamwork

by George N. Root III, Demand Media

Effective teamwork has its own characteristics.

Related Articles

What Is the Most Effective Way to Foster Teamwork?

What Actions Can the Project Manager Take to Ensure Effective Teamwork?
How do I Achieve Effective Teamwork?
Examples of Barriers to Effective Teamwork
Effective Teamwork & Interpersonal Skills
Factors Affecting Effective Teamwork

Effective teamwork creates its own set of characteristics that makes it possible to see the
cohesion in a group. When an efficient team gets to work, the structure that has been put
into place helps the group obtain productive results. In order to create a productive team,
you first need to be able to identify the characteristics of effective teamwork.
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Unified Commitment to a Goal

A team is created to complete the goals it is given. An effective team is committed to
completing its goal by using the team's resources. It does not mean that as individuals the

people that make up the team share the same point of view or are all in agreement on what
is best for the group. It means that when the team is presented with a goal, they can come
together and work as a single unit to complete the task.

Participation
In order for a team to act as a team everyone must be participating in the creation of a
solution. A team does not have extra members. Each member of a team is essential to the
team's success, and when the group is given a task, each member knows what their job is
and sets out to put in their fair share of the effort.
Related Reading: Factors Affecting Effective Teamwork

Open Communication
A team is able to communicate effectively and there is a feeling of open communication
between all members of the group. Issues within a team are handled by face-to-face
communication. Team members do not talk behind each other's back as there is a respect
developed among team members that necessitates direct and open communication on all
issues.

Decision-Making
A team has a hierarchy and a built-in decision-making system that helps it to react quickly
and effectively to all situations. The members of the group are respected for their various
areas of expertise, and the leader of the group has developed the ability to obtain the group
members' opinions to formulate the group's response. This applies to decisions made within
the group ranging from resolving internal conflict to a potential change in group leadership.

Efficient Use of Ideas

Brainstorming is one way that groups come up with the solution to a problem. An effective
team is able to gather information from each member and formulate that information into a
response. The team becomes adept at dismissing ideas that will not work, and including
effective ideas into what would become the team's solution to an issue.
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References (3)

Team Building Portal: The Unique Characteristics of an Effective Team

Team Building Solutions: Characteristics of Teamwork
NDT Resource Center: Teamwork in the Classroom

Resources (1)

Don Murray & Associates: Characteristics of Effective Teams

About the Author

George N. Root III began writing professionally in 1985. His publishing credits include a
weekly column in the "Lockport Union Sun and Journal" along with the "Spectrum," the
"Niagara Falls Gazette," "Tonawanda News," "Watertown Daily News" and the "Buffalo
News." Root has a Bachelor of Arts in English from the State University of New York, Buffalo.

Why is Teamwork Important?

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Why is teamwork important? Well its one thing to create a team, but quite another to
create teamwork.

Just as its one thing to join a team, but quite another to perform as a team member. To put it simply, teams dont work
without teamwork. On this page youll find 8 good reasons why teamwork is important.
Are you studying or looking for student resources to answer this question then click here: STUDENT
RESOURCES.
What is teamwork? There are several ways to define teamwork but for some colour why not think of it as the French
do. The French language has an excellent expression to describe it: esprit de corps.

This means a sense of unity, of enthusiasm for common interests and responsibilities, as developed among a group
of persons closely associated in a task, cause, enterprise, etc.
Teamwork can be likened to two compounds, almost essential to modern life. Its the glue which keeps a
team together, a bond which promotes strength, unity, reliability and support.
Teamwork is also the oil that makes the team work. It can enable smoother movement towards targets, can prolong
forward momentum, and can help teams to overcome obstacles.
Teamwork has the potential to underpin so much of what is valuable in work. In fact, the benefits to be gained from
teamwork synergies are essential for the effective management of resources.

Why is Teamwork Important? 8 Good Reasons!

What a difference teamwork makes. Teams and teamwork have become a central part of our work life. Why is
teamwork important? Because:

Teamwork:
1.

Creates synergy where the sum is greater than the parts.

2.

Supports a more empowered way of working, removing constraints which may prevent someone
doing their job properly.

3.

Promotes flatter and leaner structures, with less hierarchy.

4.

Encourages multi-disciplinary work where teams cut across organizational divides.

5.

Fosters flexibility and responsiveness, especially the ability to respond to change.

6.

Pleases customers who like working with good teams (sometimes the customer may be part of the
team).

7.

Promotes the sense of achievement, equity and camaraderie, essential for a motivated workplace.

8.

When managed properly, teamwork is a better way to work!

Why is teamwork important? It doesnt mean everybody doing the same thing or everybody being able to do each
others jobs. Its more a means to a synergistic way of working, where the sum is greater than the parts. Properly
managed, teamwork maximizes strengths, bringing out the best in each team member, a key theme on this site.
These specific, possibly unique individual strengths are then complimented by the strengths of others, or of the team
as a unit.

The value of teamwork is regularly seen in sports. How often do we see teams made up of expensive star players
outperformed by teams with players who may be individually less talented. Assuming transfer price tags really are an
indicator of talent! The answer lies in two things. The synergistic value of teamwork (our glue and oil), and in the
crucial role of the manager.

Characteristics of Effective Teamwork

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Building and sustaining high-performing teams

One of the crucial characteristics of effective teamwork is synergy. When synergy is achieved then a team moves
towards high performance.
Continuing our series on stages of team development using our STAR team model, in this article we consider how to
help a team achieve and sustain high performance. Aspects of synergy will be developed during the performance
stage of the model. However high performance, the subject of this article, is where the team starts to exceed its
results and to re-define some of its goals, both consistently.
Whilst every team and context is different a few important characteristics of effective teamwork can provide a basis on
which to develop your approach to developing a team that consistently performs to a high level.

Characteristics of effective teamwork the STAR team model

The STAR team model suggests that effective teamwork in the workplace happens when four elements
(Strengths, Teamwork, Alignment and Results) are in place:

Individuals flourish as they use and develop their Strengths

People come together building relationships that result in effective Teamwork

The team leader Aligns the team through effective communication of purpose, so that individual strengths
combine with teamwork to deliver the teams results

Together everyone achieves more as performance flows and Results that are meaningful and rewarding to
the team are achieved

A different emphasis and focus for each of the STAR model elements is needed at different stages of the teams
development.
For high performance, all three aspects of the STAR model are equally important, and the team balances the three
areas of results, strengths and teamwork according to the situation. The teams impact spreads beyond its immediate
context to influence other teams and the wider organization.
Typically team synergy is demonstrated when:

The team finds new ways of working

Team members initiate change

The team sets fresh challenges

Team members spreads good practice

Team members coach and support each other and start to do so with other teams

Team members take the lead more often in their area of expertise

Connections are made across team, more widely across the organisation and with customers which bring
increasing value to what the team does.

In this phase the team leader should look for synergy by:

Exploring connections

Bring things together ideas, people, skills, other teams so that they combine in a way that delivers much
more than if they were apart.

Encouraging the team to take on fresh challenges

Supporting new skills development

Renewing strengths

Encouraging individuals to experience flow ( sense of working at peak performance, where skills and level of
challenge are matched) in what they do

Promoting innovation

Being outward looking

Team leaders should also encourage the team to be outward looking:

Connecting, encouraging, finding potential

Releasing team members to lead themselves

At this stage the team increasingly leads and certainly manages itself, as the maturity and capability of team
members is evident. The leaders role is one of serving the team by helping to create the conditions for high
performance.

Synergy is one of the distinguishing characteristics of effective teamwork, but it is not always easily found. There does
need to be a sense of vigilance and determination to reap the rewards of a team that is performing for the wider
benefit of the organization.

Teamwork Concept
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The STAR Team Model

Developing a teamwork concept involves bringing together ideas and insights to inform and shape the concept. Here
we explain the ideas which shaped the STAR team model, using three distinct strands of teamwork theory. Briefly
introduced in our teamwork theories article, these were:

Team development stages

Team leadership styles

Outside factors that influence teams (within the organisation and in the wider context)

How do these teamwork concepts fit with the STAR team model?

Teamwork concept STAGES: Team Stages

Team development theories, such as Tuckmans group development stages, recognise that teams develop through
different stages. This provides a progression from initial formation through to performance. Whilst they give a useful
understanding of different team requirements at different times, there are a number of questions that arent
particularly well answered by the models. For example:

How should you lead at the different stages of a teams development?

How do you identify when you are progressing through a stage?

How does the team develop in the organisational setting?

How is it affected by other outside influences?

Group stages theory doesnt explicitly answer these questions. To do so, and thus to build a more robust teamwork
concept, ideas about team leadership and outside factors need to be introduced.

Teamwork concept STYLES: Leadership Styles

The second strand of theories suggests that leadership activity will be different at different stages of the team
development. This is a common notion in management studies, that many models are in fact situational, and that the
approach adopted should change dependant on the context. This idea is also common to a number of leadership
theories, which suggest leaders should adapt their behaviours and actions according to the situation. For example,

contingency or situational leadership models tend to offer a continuum of responses a leader might take, from a
directive approach where the leader steers the team, to approaches that tend towards delegation, where team
members have much more say about what and how they do things.
Other models recognise different functions of leadership. One well known example is John Adairs action centred
leadership, which emphasizes leaders placing a focus on the task, team and the individual. The balance of focus will
vary from situation to situation.
In the STAR team model we have brought together some of these theories, highlighting the leaders role in aligning
individual strengths with teamwork, to achieve meaningful results. The STAR team model incorporates the idea that a
leader needs to behave differently given the different stages of team development. The leaders focus of attention will
vary at different stages of the teams development.
For example, during the formation of the team it is important to ensure that team members are clear about why they
are in the team, and what they are expected to achieve. So the primary focus in this stage will be on results, whilst
recognizing that aspects of teamwork and strengths will still need attention. During other stages the focus will switch
to the importance of teamwork and strengths.
To further develop the teamwork concept, these second set of theories about leadership can be applied to the first
(group development) to answer the question: where should your emphasis be during the different stages? What do
you need to look out for and what activities do you need to focus on at the different stages a team goes through?

Teamwork concept SITUATION: Organisational and wider context

Thirdly, teams do not exist in a vacuum; their effectiveness can be greatly influenced by factors external to the team,
from other teams, the wider organization and external factors outside the organisation. Whilst group stage theories
such as Tuckmans model provide a useful way to think about how a team develops they place little emphasis on the
external environment. Similarly leadership models can too often focus on the leadership needs of the team and not
enough recognition is given to the leaders role outside of the team.
A number of researchers have expanded team theory to include an emphasis on the context within which the team
operates. For example Sunstrom and colleagues view teams as embedded within an organization and suggest that
team effectiveness is therefore dependant on how the boundaries work between teams and other teams, and how the
organisational context impacts on the team. It raises the important role of the team leader in establishing boundaries,
and in ensuring the links between other teams work well, and that the systems and processes in the wider
organization support and encourage the effectiveness of the team.
To develop a teamwork concept such as STAR teams then it is important to blend together three strands of teamwork
theories:
Group development stages
Contingency and situational leadership

and finally recognizing that

teams exist in an organizational and wider external setting that can support or inhibit teams.
If you do have the time to read more on this topic, why not go to our teamwork articles. To read more of about our
teamwork concept the STAR team model- see our articles teamwork theories, teamwork defined and teamwork in
the workplace. For a more general introduction to team a good place to start might be to think through why is
teamwork important , or you may want to think about how you define teamwork or reminding yourself of the benefits of
teamwork.

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