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The team is dead... long live the virtual team
Same name - different teams
The term "team" is an extremely complex and confused concept. In fact, it has been so overused that, in most cases, it has lost any real meaning.
As Michael Schrage, in his book No More Teams, states it:
More often than not, a "team" is as much a political entity as a value creating one. The word is too flexible, too malleable, too manipulable.
Even so, the image and behaviour of the high-performing team has become the stuff of contemporary mythology. From Mrs. Peel and Steed of The Avengers, James T. Kirk, Spock and the other members of the Star Trek team to Dana Scully and Fox Mulder of the X-Files team, the complex interplay and bonding between the team members has often been more interesting than the specific challenge facing the team.
Indeed, the media mythology of teams has, more often than not, simply added to the confusion surrounding the concept of a team. Does the macho interplay between "Hannibal" Smith and the A-Team result in the A-Team being a more effective team than the X-File team where there is constant conflict between Scully’s scientific rationalism and Mulder’s emotional and personal commitment to pursuing "the truth that is out there"? Are the Three Stooges a team given that they spend most of their time beating each other up and yet, the team survived the various replacements such as Shemp, Curly and so on?