In technology, it is essential that teams collaborate effectively. Communication standards must be in place with projects divided up and deadlines set, and everyone must deliver on their expected results or else the entire workflow gets jammed. In the midst of a complicated project, it can be easy to forget that a single organization is made up of many teams — all essential and all working to deliver different elements adding up to a whole.

Teams are groups of people who work together to deliver a specific function, service or product for the organization at large. Teams require specific skills for members to be effective. The operations team manages day-to-day business operations and processes. The customer service team resolves and decreases customer complaints. The sales team delivers the customer experience to create raving fans and loyalty, deliver your message, and grow relationships and revenues. Together, these teams form one community. And to be effective, that community must collaborate effectively.

Communities are groups of people who work together in service of a higher purpose. They have a distinct culture and the strength of their culture fuels positivity and productivity. Communities are built through the alignment of teams, like pieces of code coming together to form a single program. They are interactive, require participation, are dependent on their members, and equal more than the sum of their parts. When one member is in need, the entire community will reach out to support them. Communities are built on common strengths and they leverage those strengths to deliver on a shared mission.  
 

Communities are:	Teams are:
Committed to a higher purpose (vision) Driven by a common mission Sustained by the alignment of teams toward a shared culture	Discipline-based Tactical in nature Focused on specific tasks or deliverables

 

Over the last 25 years, I have had the privilege to work with hundreds of organizations and study those who consistently outperform their competition regardless of economic conditions. These outstanding organizations start by aligning their community with a strong and healthy culture.

They make sure their people don’t just understand the organization’s higher purpose —they also learn how to deliver on it and actively contribute toward it. They learn about how the organization works, why they do what they do, and how their work is meaningful to the goals and aspirations of the organization at large.

The lesson: While the nature of the work itself can be isolating, all too often IT departments are cut off from the rest of the organization. Leaders in IT must work especially hard to learn how their teams fit into the community at large, and help their people see the role they play in bringing the entire organization’s culture to life.