How Teamwork Can Be Developed as an Individual Skill

Summary: Individual skills enable teamwork, and individuals are responsible for team failure as well as team success. Neither hierarchical nor team structures are inherently superior, but either can be undermined by individual attitudinal problems. Avoiding responsibility, and rigid thinking right and wrong, winning and losing, carrot and stick, and skill sets and roles are the most common contributors to failure in group activity, regardless of structure. The author lays out a set of teambuilding principles and encourages individuals to take responsibility for actions and results, rather than justifying and laying blame for failure. Each person on a team or in a hierarchy must take responsibility and be accountable for a project's outcome.