What makes a good team?

A self-managed team is just one type of team: All the fundamentals of team building, management and team interactions apply to SMTs and every other team structure.

A dictionary definition of a team is

team

n. 2. two or more persons working together

The Concise Oxford Dictionary

Notice that this says nothing about all the magical properties of teams we have come to expect over the last few years - the same dictionary's definition of teamwork begins to introduce these aspects

teamwork

n. the combined action of a team, group, etc., esp. when effective and efficient.

But, really, what does make a good team? What are the basics?

A team is a group of people with different outlooks, skills and experience brought together to create a dynamic force to

Define targets
Assess ideas
Make decisions
Plan tasks
Implement solutions
Measure success

Some of these tasks need to be communicated to the outside world and some are internal to the team - as discussed in the section on communication.

Every team member adds something to the team

Knowledge
Skills
Contacts
Understanding
Enthusiasm
Wariness . . .

It's an almost endless list - Sometimes a member's contribution is obviously complimentary to others and sometimes they look like opposites: Enthusiasm for technology and wariness which help to find a balanced approach to the subject, for instance.

A performing team will also have agreed ways to do things: At their most formal these will be elements of a methodology. Even without a formal methodology most teams will adopt document standards, a standard vocabulary and measures of success and failure. Some of what keeps a team's members working together and out-performing other groups of people is called team spirit - A self-managed team must create and maintain its team spirit and learn to deal with threats to that spirit, threats like conflict.

Resources for team builders
There is in enormous amount in various media, including the internet, on building teams and getting them to perform. Unless you're involved with creating or participating in a team for the first time you'll probably already have seen one or more pieces that you feel comfortable with.
A couple of references I've found useful are

This one's a little elderly now, having been around for a few years (it talks about teams as being the essential building block of the organisation of the future, which I doubt a newer book would risk!). Writing this, I've just noticed that I've had my copy since 1997. But it does contain a lot of good advice and isn't mired in post-year 2000 teamspeak.		A little lightweight, perhaps, but a great introduction. Especially if you have a long drive to the team's inaugural meeting (and have a car that still plays tapes, not just CDs!) Well worth the two hours of relatively easy listening
THE WISDOM OF TEAMS: Creating the High-Performance Organization Jon R Katzenbach and Douglas K Smith McGraw-Hill ISBN 0-87584-367-0		The One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams Kenneth Blanchard, Donald Carew and Eunice Parisi-Carew Read by Patrick Alan Harper Collins AudioBooks ISBN 0-00-104666-7

Other pages of this article
Main article	Benefits of SMT	Communication	Technology and the team