Teams - do we really need them?

[Mary Brown]

I know this might be a bit controversial but here goes!
The article on teams and their issues was very thorough and well researched, but isn't there something which is taken for granted? I mean the belief that teams are 'a Good Thing'?
As a (hopefully civilised) anarchist I have a great suspicion that 'better teamwork' is often used by managers to impose conformism, especially on those of us who question the 'party line' (aka 'not being a team player').
The best 'teams' I've worked in have been where there was no pretence of being a team. We were a collection of individuals who came together for a joint purpose but also met our own agendas. Is this just a question of semantics or is there something I'm missing here?
best wishes, Mary

[Carolyn Barber]

Some great points you've raised here Mary  

One of the issues I've written about previously is how to start by looking at what kind of 'team' you've got. There's a world of difference between a 'team' that's put together for purely administrative purposes, and where people need to work collectively in order to get a job done. In social work and social care settings we do have a very powerful managerial culture, but in my experience this means effective team working is not particularly valued. I interviewed a dozen senior social care managers across different kinds of services last year and was quite astonished at the low priority they placed on team development.

[Mary Brown]

Yes thanks for that Carolyn- maybe it's the difference between administrative teams and working teams that I'm getting at. And, as you say, if managers regard teams as an administrative convenience rather than a means of developing synergies and sharing ideas, that's when they lose their value. A group of people who are all highly enthusiastic about a particular project and who respect their colleagues' expertise probably don't need any teambuilding! Sometimes I think blaming teams for disfunctional behaviour might be a useful smokescreen for the fact that the tasks they are engaged with are lacking in meaning for most team members.
I work in Higher Education and one of the 'perks' of the job continues to be the fact that there is meaning in developing individuals' potential. However, increasing student numbers and lack of consequent increase in lecturer numbers (together with more emphasis on regarding students as 'customers' and consequent pressure to get them through) is eroding this part of the job. We are constantly urged to be 'team players' but this often appears to be managerial rhetoric aimed at getting people to take on each other's work.
I guess the message is - teams are not a panacea and they need nurturing in a positive environment to be really successful.