Teams are more than groups of people. I should probably end the statement with this sentence because it is easy to leave it at the dissective instinct of a human being to delve and take into consideration the sweet bits of what I like to call as 'comforting change'.

We establish groups of people and call them teams as it is easier to connotate and assume that they follow the basic framework. The top 5 I have seen in my experience of coaching are:

They are assigned together within the same project, program or 'endeavor'.
They are tied towards a common objective; usually a delivery or an expected outcome.
They have roles. Overlapping, distinct or 'all in one's'(yes they exist). I like to call the last one 'dissonance in perfect harmony'.
They are measured on outcomes. Caveat being, that they may be distinctly different for each individual or in highly evolved teams have a aligned measures.

They have a common leader (if lucky); mostly it is a myriad complex structure of dotted lines with everyone reporting and wanting a share of the reportee.

Most organisations believe setting a construct or a framework will allow to foster a group of people. Some go to lengths to talk about the famous Tuckman research and attribute stages to team development, when groups go wrong. They are bucketed into isolated pockets of thought - Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. Well yes, its true !! These stages do happen but the base research or the real crux is completely forgotten. They are stages in team development (with stress on the word team). The classic stages set themselves out after 'Forming' and this is not about getting groups of people together but understanding the dynamics.

All people working together need to go through the process of evolving from 'a group' to 'a team' and this is where understanding dynamics and setting up 'team evolved' mechanisms to share honest feedback on each others working style is absolutely critical. 7 out of 9 teams never make it past the 'Forming' stage.

There are four key aspects from a people (singular) that needs to be looked into that create four equivalent tendencies :

People who like you and People who you like. - Enjoy
People who you like but they do not like you. - Need of Acceptance
People who you don't like and they do not like you. - Avoid
People who you don't like and they like you.- Sense of Respect

Its important to keep the tendencies in mind as they are the driving force to create a group of people into teams. Barring the first common area, where there is instant bonding, the rest may be quite hidden and not really observable.

There are specific intervention tools ( light to use) to ensure that pockets of existence of the other common areas are readily tackled and done away with. Without these interventions, teams never really get formed. They are always battling with inter personal issues that decimate and eat away on productive time.

Interventions such as below:

Team Think Stack(c)
The 5 Big Dimensions (NEO-IP aggregate)
The 3 S model (c)

can enable a smoother transition. Here is the measured response over 1600 individuals within teams that have utilised these interventions, with efficacy of change measured over the various Tuckman stages

The effect at any given point on the time line is much more and it allows groups of people to rapidly form into self evolving, high powered-performing teams. There is a distinct need to remember that the softer aspects, that allow us to 'be human' is the glue that binds us into strong teams.

Skills are important, soft skills more so....