Points well taken. I will attempt to refine my question here. The reason I did not provide more details was that I sought generalizable concepts; however, I can see that the specifics are necessary.
One kind of team is academic. Let us suppose we have 4 people - students, perhaps. The team could be created (assigned by the instructor) or voluntary (people choose who they team up with). The goal would be some sort of assignment, resulting in a product - a report, presentation, or other document. Consequences of failure are a bad grade.
This has two perspectives. First, the instructor perspective - how to create and build teamwork. Second, if one were a member of such a group, how to encourage other individuals to coalesce into a team.
The acquaintance I mentioned earlier is a new operations manager at golf club with a substantial dining facility, and the questions will center around the dining facility.
Their model consists of cooks (back of the house) and waiters (front of the house). Presently, members of the subgroups do not assist each other. Occasionally, mild mutual sabotage occurs. This pattern has persisted for decades, and has remained in place through numerous managers. The corrective action taken so far is to post a photocopied poster advocating teamwork. (No, really. I'm not jesting)
Replacement of workers is possible, but creates the risk of getting even worse replacements. This, of course, is directly connected to TS's point that selection is critical, so an aspect of the problem might be how one makes a good selection to promote development of team orientation.
The goal for the restaurant group is increased effectiveness, perhaps leading to improved profits (Rhetorical question: why would a cook or waiter care? Job security may be too much of an abstraction.)
So, there are some common factors. In each instance, there are disparate individuals who are (or were) thrown together. There are benefits to working together, but they tend to be deferred and abstract. Selection may be problematic, especially in the academic group. Risks of failure, from an individual perspective, are perceived as small. Benefits of success, likewise.
Is such a project well-nigh impossible? Perhaps. But hopefully it is possible to avoid having them all go to strip clubs....
