Section 1: What is a team?

Section 1: What is a team? > Why teamwork? > Types of teams

• Right now, you might be in a student team in a course at university, a member of a project team in your professional life, and/or you might play in a sporting team or in a band.
• Simply put, if you’re not already part of a team or teams, the likelihood is that you soon will be.
• TYPES OF TEAMS Interprofessional Healthcare Team Inter-professional health team – Inter-professional healthcare teams consist of team members who have different professions and occupations and who work together to provide quality, individualised care for patients.
• Project Team Project teams – Project teams have a responsibility to achieve a specific outcome on a particular project.
• They differ from work groups, business teams, and management teams in that they usually have a defined lifetime: that of the project they are working on.
• Business Team Business team – A business team is a multi-disciplinary team that oversees a specific product or service.
• A team looking after the production of cheese may comprise scientists, engineers, HR managers, salespeople, and accountants.
• Design Team Design team – Design teams usually comprise multi-disciplinary members whose task is to design all or part of a product, system, or service.
• When we say ‘team’ we’re using the following definition: “A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable”.
• Throughout this course therefore we use the word ‘team’ and not ‘group’.