The Difference Between Group and Team

A group is a gathering of mutually independent individuals with independent goals who are united by common interests and experience. Even though everybody shares resources and information with other group and team individuals, everyone is answerable for their own work.

The two types of groups are:

• Formal group, created by organization for a task
• Informal group, naturally formed by employees for different reasons

Definition and Characteristics of Teams

A team is an interdependent group of people who share responsibility and are focused on a common objective. Individuals in a team have a common understanding with different members. By cooperating, they tend to maximize each other’s strengths and limit weaknesses. In contrast to a group, where every member is expected to contribute independently, the most significant quality of a team is synergy: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Why is a team better than a group?

As per 90% of articles on the internet, transforming your group into a team will help organizations in achieving the goals set.

Here are a few benefits teams have over groups:

• Collaboration and synergy are better.
• There is much more communication between members.
• Common objective guarantees that everybody is focused on the same cause.

A few experts even claim that ‘team-based organization’ is the best way to go. Biren Bandara, a leadership skills mentor at Leader school, says that he separates ‘group’ versus ‘team’ very clearly: in a group, everyone works at mutually exclusive tasks, while in a team all individuals are focused on common mission or goal through completion of interdependent assignments.

Even though groups and teams are totally different entities, but a company can transform an inefficient group into an efficient team.

Turning a group into a team

The powerful ties among team members come first from goals and purpose. A common, worthwhile purpose develops a feeling of accomplishing something significant together, and specific, challenging team goals dependent on that reason develop a feeling of going somewhere significant together. Without purpose and goals, no group will turn into a team.

But they are not sufficient. Team members also need clarity; about job roles, about how the work is done, and about how team members connect. When these essential components are in place, groups become teams: communities that exert strong influence on members’ behaviors and attitudes. That is the reason the ability to transform of people into a true team can make you a more effective and influential manager.

Managers would come to appreciate the potential outcomes of managing a group as a whole — that is, making a team and managing through it. They learned to depend more on using team goals and values to enrich performance. They discovered they could impact individual behavior significantly more effectively this way. We all need to accomplish significant work, of course, but on the other hand we are social creatures who need to fit in and be acknowledged as a part of a team.

The Impact of Effective Team Management

A team is qualitatively different in relation to a group. A team plays a vital role in the life of the members as it encourages the individuals for working creatively and participating actively in the team tasks. In addition, a team motivates the individuals to work for/with each other in accomplishing a goal.