Think about the teams you appreciate—Chiefs, Royals, school sports, the list of teams fans cheer goes on and on. Teams offer camaraderie, mutual support and the opportunity to accomplish more than when going solo. Teams rock. It begs the question: Is your company comprised of multiple teams or one big team? Unless you are a sole proprietorship, you relate to the people you work with, and it’s a whole lot more productive if you’re working as a team.

               Whatmakes teams click and work? Surprisingly, it has less to do with personalitiesand more to do with management. No matter how diverse team members may be,young and old, bookish and impulsive, talkative or moody, external factorsdetermine their effectiveness. Richard Hackman,an organizational guru, told the Harvard Business Review that theseextrinsic factors are critical to team success:

• A compelling direction. Does the team see a clear direction? Are they all rowing in the same direction? A strong sense of purpose and a goal matter, especially in this day of Zoom meetings and internet dialog.

• A strong structure. Does the team have a leader? A set meeting time? Does each team member have a task and know his/her part in completing the objective? A team without structure is often no more than a group of people who all want to be captain, with no one rowing the boat.

• A supportive context. Support can include rewards for progress, visits with management, and having materials in hand when they are needed.

Teams are the backbone of agrowing company, because there’s just so much a single person can actually doin a 24-hour day. A fledgling business takes off. It grows like crazy. Thencomes a day when all of a sudden it either stops growing or it takes on teammembers. Integrating them into a workable unit requires the entrepreneur to beable to develop good listening skills, good communicating skills and theability to channel moodiness into productivity. Entrepreneur interviewedseveral up and coming new ventures on what they perceived as critical skillssets for growing teams. Their insights are fascinating!

Unifying, inclusive behaviors and strong communication skills mold a team into a productive organism that can propel a company into the big leagues. The synergy of team members bouncing ideas off one another and coming up with new bombshells is like an electric current stimulating a company, and success follows that team. All too often a business degenerates into being an organization, and the result is a slow decline. Contrast the difference between being part of an organization with being part of an organism. Do you see the difference?

An organism is a live creation. It has a heartbeat. It has a mind. It has will and direction. Talk about an organization is characterized by spreadsheets and a hierarchy listing the lowliest employee to the top honcho. Talk about an organism, and suddenly its dynamic qualities spring into every description: “Meet Shelly, here, she’s the heartbeat of our company! This is Al, he’s our brainiac. Here’s Vivian, she keeps our hands and feet busy!” See the difference now?

Yes, it’s easier in a small company, yet it’s also possible in a large company comprised of multiple teams. Think about ways to utilize teams to further your business!