5 Why Do Teams Sometimes Fail?

When teams work well, they can achieve remarkable feats. Effective teams can:

• increase an organization's productivity;

• put forward and implement original ideas;

• make half-baked ideas work;

• bring out the best in team members;

• unite a group of disparate individuals;

• raise the morale of a whole organization.

But not all teams are as effective as they might be. What gets in the way of teams performing to their full potential?

You may have suggested any one of the following reasons for the lack of success of a particular team.

As we go through the points, it would be useful to bear in mind our definition of a team. We said that:

a workteam is a group with common objectives, who are willing to work together, are picked and trained to carry out defined tasks, and whose members are dependent on one another's efforts.

EXTENSION 2 Why Teams Don't Work is a practical handbook that shows how a team can work together to achieve its goals.

If any of these factors is missing, or is not given sufficient consideration, the team will not 'fire on all cylinders'.

• Any team is composed of individuals, each with his or her own ambitions, prejudices, ideas and preferences. None of us is the same as anyone...