Every year I work with companies on organizational health and building strong teams. One of the fundamental issues is distinguishing between groups and teams.

Managers often place high performing individuals together and expect them to work well together. Then they are usually disappointed when those same individuals fail to reach even basic goals and objectives. But this shouldn’t come as a surprise. There are countless examples of high performing individuals fighting one another to reach the top of some mountain while happily sacrificing others around them.

Welcome to the dynamic of a group versus a team.

The late motivational speaker and sales guru, Zig Ziglar, liked to share a story about Belgian Draft Horses. As he told it, one Belgian Draft Horse can pull around 7,000 pounds (think high performing individual). Harness him to another Belgian Draft Horse and together they can pull over 15,000 pounds (think a group of two high performing individuals). But—and this is the difference between groups and teams—teach them to work together and the team can pull up to 25,000 pounds.

Teams leverage individual strengths and work with agreed upon operating procedures to accomplish a common goal.

How teams work versus groups:

Leverage individual strengths—I often tell people it’s important to embrace the OCD in others. Let them obsess in their own areas while you obsess in yours. Groups of people tend to try to establish their boundaries and gain positional advantages. Great teams don’t do this. They work to the strengths of those around them and outproduce their counterparts by exponential factors.
Agreed upon operating procedures—Strong teams are clear what’s expected, how they are supposed to conduct themselves, and who is responsible for getting things done. I’ve run into plenty of companies that seem to believe groups will make up their own rules and somehow those rules will work out. That hasn’t been my experience.
Accomplish a common goal—The best teams know what they are trying to accomplish together. I have found that good teams can fall apart when the goals aren’t clear. It’s as if you lined everyone up on a starting line, fired the starter’s pistol and everyone ran to a different destination. That’s chaos. Make the goals clear.

Building strong teams is critical to building healthy organizations that can consistently tackle big challenges and change the world. They don’t happen by accident, and they often don’t happen by themselves. The deliberate guidance of executives and managers to leverage their strongest players can have a profound impact on how well their company performs—or whether their best performers decide to leave the company for greener pastures.

Need help building healthy teams and a company culture? Let’s talk.