Chapter 11

The difference between a group and a team is quite simple. A group is a collection of randomly selected people, who may know each others' names, but not much more, and are collected for some purpose. A team is a collection of people who have gotten to know each other very well, work interdependently, and are working to achieve a purpose or goal. Teams are way more interactive, personal, and goal-driven. Groups are all business and do not care to take their relationship to any level beyond the basics that they need for whatever their given purpose is. While not all teams get along, they at least have had an opportunity to learn whether or not they like one another; groups never get to this stage. In my opinion, teams work better than groups do. This is because they have gotten to the level of feeling comfortable with one another, so they can correct each other when they see a mistake or speak up when they wan to share something. Group members might feel more intimidated to speak up because they do not know how the other members will react and they do not want to look stupid in front of everyone.