Outdated Teamwork Myths That May Be Hurting Your Team
WORDS BY ANTONINA JOSON
How many people does it take to change a lightbulb? Well, it all depends on their teamwork.
The notion of teamwork has been around for ages. In fact, it’ s a contributing factor to humanity’ s survival throughout history. Though it’ s an age-old concept, not everyone’ s got the hang of it quite yet. Common myths around teamwork still prevail and operating on these myths can hurt a team’ s performance.
While we don’ t have to hunt for meat in packs in any longer, teamwork is an essential part of day-to-day life. Whether it’ s in a corporate setting or rallying the family for a vacation, society has unpacked and unravelled some of these myths over time. The most common misconceptions are deceivingly simple but at the same time, the real deal appears counterintuitive.
Let’ s break down some teamwork myths together!
It always has to be rainbows and sunshine in a team setting.
A team that never argues may not be as healthy as you think. Conflict can be healthy and is“ a sign of engagement, not dysfunction.” But this isn’ t a sign for teams to let conflicts go too far.
Tension within a team can be healthy if it can be resolved professionally and within a reasonable timeframe. Among the Harvard Business Review’ s suggestions for handling conflict is to encourage team members to detach from the conflict and stay calm.
First,“ depersonalise” from the argument. These arguments or conflicts shouldn’ t be directly associated with the person, rather viewed as a perspective to consider. Second, stay steady throughout the conflict. Harvard mentions that this helps create a safe space for team members to speak up and consider each other’ s perspectives. Lastly, Harvard Business Review highly recommends normalising these differences and framing them as“ essential for collaboration.”
The bigger the team, the better.
As the saying goes,“ too many cooks spoil the broth.” The number of people in a team isn’ t always directly related to the success and quality of a project or task. Sometimes a task may be smaller than a team. Other times, it’ s a matter of delegation.
Sometimes, too many people for one task may result in poorer output quality. If a team is too big for one task, they could face some challenges like; uneven workload distribution, duplicated work, miscommunication, rise in tension, and even slower decision-making.
Instead of continuously growing a team without a plan, it’ s important to know the task or tasks at hand. Managers should be thoroughly aware of the task and listen to members’ feedback about similar projects in the past. This way, they can evaluate how many people are right for the team. Additionally, teams must be flexible along the course of the project. Each project is unique, and the course of the task may develop in unexpected ways. There should be an open discussion as to the delegation of tasks, timeframes, and if additional support is needed.
Success depends entirely on the leader.
This is the oldest of teamwork myths! A great leader is important, but success doesn’ t hinge on them or just a singular person. Individual success
34 ISSUE 56 DECEMBER 2025 / WWW. AFMA. ORG. AU