If you take a group of individuals, and find a common base between the, whether attitudes, perceptions or goals, then that’s how a team is formed. Within the team, the ideal situation is that all members can contribute equally. This way, they are able to accomplish complicated tasks and achieve the team's predefined objectives.
Within any organisation, no one member works alone. In order to get the maximum benefit for the whole team, each individual employee needs to work in close coordination with each other. The idea being that each and every member of the team will compliment each other and be able to provide assistance wherever it’s needed most. Whenever there’s a complicated task, then a team effort approach is always the best means of achieving the optimum result. To that end, let’s have a deeper dive into the types of teams that you may well come across in most work situations.
Permanent Teams
This type of team is more permanent. When one project is complete, the team remains the same and goes on to the next project as one. An example would be a “branding” team. They handle specific tasks, generate strategies and promote the company brand to help generate greater profits for the company. As they work well together, always hit deadlines and are on target, then there’s no need to change anything about this team. You’ll find the same permanent teams in human resources, operations and accounting. As they function effectively through the year, then they remain together as a permanent team.
Temporary Teams
Once a specific task has been satisfactorily completed, then some teams are disbanded. Their importance was only relevant for that specific project. You’ll often find temporary teams when a business has excess work. These teams are generally focussed on the short term and often help permanent teams, especially when there’s a tight deadline involved.
Task Force
These are special purpose teams, and are often formed to deal with critical matters. They’re often formed to explore every possible solution, as there’s always a specific time limit involved. That's why you normally only hear this group term used in such matters as governmental bodies for investigating terrorist attacks, and other serious public order events.
Committee
A committee can either be temporary or permanent. It all depends on the task/work assignment. On the whole, these will involve individuals with a common cause or interest, as well as many sharing the same background. Often a committee will be formed around a cultural event, raising funds or overseeing an organization. Committee members will work together towards successfully completing a task by designing strategies. In many educational institutions, the student bodies will form committees to deal with various activities that affect their departments.
Organization/WorkForce
This type of team differs from the previous ones in one major way. These teams will be working under the guidance of a team leader. This person can be part of the team itself, as they are normally appointed by the whole team. The role of team leader or supervisor is to help oversee the whole team, as well as ensuring the best from each team member. He leads to ensure there are no intra-team conflicts, as well as offering encouragement and advice.
Self Managed Teams
Once again, we have the prerequisites of a team working towards a common goal, but without any leadership. Each team member is accountable for their own individual performance and as such, is self-managed. This team approach requires respect among all it’s members, whilst at the same time, always keeping an eye on the overall team goals. It also requires that each team member is self motivated and are target focussed both for themselves and for the team as a whole.
Cross Functional Team
Sometimes a team dealing with a specific set of tasks will come across something they are not trained or competent to deal with.In these cases, they will need to call in the help of other teams or individuals to help deal with these specific cases. These then become cross-functional teams. Essentially, employees with different areas of expertise are drafted in to help find a unique solution to a problem or tasks, that needs a new or more experienced set of skills.
Virtual Teams
This refers to a team, separated by distance, who communicate via the internet. Often this will be using a conferencing app like Zoom. With more and more workers working remotely, it’s really thanks to the internet that this can still be productive. Not only does this allow teams to continue functioning, even when separated by thousands of miles, but it also helps with the social aspects of working alone. So in some ways, though virtual teams are great on the surface, the use of the internet as a means of bringing people together should not be underestimated.
