Managing groups vs teams

Working in a practice often means working together with colleagues to complete tasks. Important factors managers often misperceive is whether their employees are working as a group or as a team and how to manage accordingly. Being able to recognise this will help productivity and the working culture within your practice.

A group is a collective of individuals who coordinate their efforts, while a team is a group of people who share a common purpose. Although similar, both produce different results in regards to decision-making, teamwork, overall collaboration and task execution. In a work group, members are independent from one another and hold individual accountability. Whereas in a team, members share mutual accountability and work closely together to solve problems. 

Group-focused workforce management should consider functionality and group dynamics. Group dynamics describe interactions, behaviours and attitudes. These can have both positive and negative effects on group collaboration, depending on how they are managed. Healthy group dynamics consist of fluid collaboration and transparency. Unhealthy dynamics produce lack of teamwork resulting in individual isolation. To prevent these scenarios occurring within your practice, a team-focused approach will assist in breaking down communication barriers. A good way to avoid this is by organising team-building games to encourage group collaboration and healthy dynamics.

Team-focused organisations around group dynamics have more transparency and fewer communication issues, largely due to their team work around shared goals and focus on problem solving together, encouraging communication. This helps create a healthy workplace and positive independent relationships. To encourage this, managers should ensure collective goals are kept in sight and they are empowering their team to rely on one another to meet those goals. A tip for managers in team environments would be to create a transparent environment and align work with relevant objectives.