What Is a Team?

A team is more than the sum of its parts.

For a group to be functional, it must have a compelling purpose that is distinct and specific to the group and that requires its members to respect each other and work together to accomplish something beyond individual end products. For a team to be effective in providing assistive technology services, it must be a genuinely collaborative team that integrates the parents as equal partners.

While teams are strongest when the members bring a rich variety of knowledge and skills from various disciplines, each member must appreciate the contributions of others and work to support, supplement, and complement those contributions.

While a group of people can work together very effectively, they do not become a team without developing several very specific characteristics with regard to leadership, mission, self-perception and the ground rules for interactions.