Groups vs. Teams

Teams vs. groups… what is the difference? I can’t even begin to tell you the number of times I have been divided into a group or been asked to be a part of team. I never really fully understood the difference between to two until recently and I believe most people are still puzzled by the difference. Groups are larger and they tend to not be as focused as team’s are- normally they have a common interest and communicate about that interest. Teams on the other hand tend to be smaller than groups and often times have a very specific goal they want to achieve and as a result work together closely to attain that goal. Teams have an investment in success. SO, what does this mean for us as members of different groups and teams?

Throughout my lifetime I have had the chance to serve on many teams and be apart of many groups. When I was younger, I was apart of my Girl Scout troop. Every other week would meet and have a great time getting together and working on our lessons and doing crafts. We were a group of girls with similar interests in community service and growth but we were not really a team. Yes, we had a great time going to events and sometimes planning activities, but we had no real investment in success and we never relied on one other to do certain jobs to attain our goals (mainly because we had no clearly defined goals, just common interests). Needless to say I learned a lot through my involvement with the girl scouts and it was nice to be apart of a group at a younger age.

As I grew older, I started to learn what it meant to be a team. When I was in high school I ran varsity cross country and track my freshman year until a knee injury ended in two surgeries and untimely ended my high school running career. When I was on the cross-country team, it was different. We weren’t just a group of high school students who got together for fun; we were a team who worked together. We ran together, we shared together, we grew together, we lost together, and we won together. Each of us had a part and we each had a responsibility to uphold our end of the deal. We had a common goal and in the process of accomplishing that goal we became good friends and built our social relationships. We woke up early and stayed up late; we leaned on each other for support and in the process each of grew as people and as a team. Six other girls plus me, showed mw for the first time what it truly meant to be apart of a team and to be apart of something larger than just me.

Now that I have reflected on some of my experiences in groups and teams I feel better equipped to understand where they are appropriate and how to use them. As youth leaders it is important for us to understand the difference between groups and teams. We need to be able to define our experiences and use them to help us better understand the similarities and difference between these.