What is a Team?

The history of humankind is the story of teamwork. The defining characteristic of Homo sapiens has been our ability to work collaboratively to achieve a common goal; everything that is great and enduring has been achieved in teams. Moreover, almost everybody has experienced being part of a team that has achieved something they are proud of – something worthwhile that matters. But before we can understand teams, we need to be clear about how a team is different to other social groups? One practical definition is: “A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”  

Jon Katzenbach & Douglas Smith, The Discipline of Teams  – And they went on to say: “You should teamwork when the output of your efforts will be qualitatively different following collaboration.