Teams Dont Think

Based on my own experience (and sensitivities) I wonder if a single-minded focus on teams is OK? Teams don't think or act. Individuals think, act and decide. They serve customers. They do it together (and we can even give them an additional hand, using "grouptechniques" and learning "teamskills"). But, teams still are composed of individuals with talents, skills, hopes and values. If we want to work with a team, we have to understand its people. ---MartineDevos

I agree that the key to a good functioning team is an environment where individuals within it are allowed to think on their own and provide the value of that parallel processing to the whole. I've had past experiences with companies very into "Team Building" and activities aimed at group think. While it worked well to make people all stay together at the office until after midnight it didn't seem to add any productivity. None of them explored the idea that they should look at the structure of their company or their methods of development and see if those worked well to promote teamwork. It was a PsychologicalSolutionToAStructuralProblem.

For example very hierarchical/compartmentalized development environments with extremely rigid notions of code ownership were never flattened or opened. In group work with steep hierarchies junior developers are frequently and summarily be overruled by the ChiefArchitect or Senior developers. The strength of the buy in on code ownership was just as strong on the junior level since developers wanted to be able to think for themselves about something.

I still haven't tried it in a sizable corporate team but ExtremeProgramming but it seems to solve a large number of these basically structural problems with teamwork while still getting good value out of your senior people. With PairProgramming there is a good chance that the senior developers are actually going to help improve everyone's skills as opposed to stifling them. ---PeterDoak

Teams can think. See social insects. Much as an individual brain is composed of neurons, a group brain is composed of individual brains. -- EricHodges

See YouAreStillAnIndividual

See "Get The Right People On The Bus" principle from GoodToGreat. Teams are made of people. Get the right people together and you have a great team. Get the wrong people together ... disaster.