The Team is everywhere. But is it really a team? Or is it Invasion of the Body Snatchers? You will become one of us.

Marketing teams tell us that The Team is all-important. Software vendors see The Team as a deity. Hardware vendors no longer address responsible people. They address The Team. Before The Team, there were individuals; individuals working together. Individuals who garnered recognition for their own efforts along with departments who also achieved as a single entity. Are individual efforts disappearing into The Team?

So strongly is The Team marketed everywhere, including industrial/manufacturing media—and within the hallowed halls of countless engineering disciplines—that managers needn't recognize, reward, or reprimand individuals. The Team is called in for compliments, or pep talks for next time. "Become a part of Our Team" seems to be moving closer and closer to The Borg.

Whatever happened to individuals with the drive to excel? Whatever happened to doing what you're paid to do, doing it exceedingly well, being compensated for this effort, and going home? No. The Team needs you. Come with us. We are The Team. The Team is on-call. The Team must do whatever's required. Chances are pretty good that whatever's required will be about it. Sometimes, perhaps, a little less, for with that amorphous, nameless, faceless thing called a Team also comes an interesting form of passivity: Let the other members of The Team worry about it.

Whatever happened to management? That is, someone who knows the business inside and out. Lives it. Breathes it. Someone who also pays attention to and truly knows staff members—including their strengths and weaknesses—and manages a given project or a goal through exceptional utilization of that knowledge and the very human, very talented individuals that are part of that group. Ah. There's the other great thing about managing The Team. It wasn't my fault, Boss. I swear. It was The Team. I did the absolute best that I could.

Reality television shows, to some, are a sure sign that we're sliding into the abyss. For others, they're entertainment. For still others, they're truly representative of the reality of human nature. Pardon me, but I refuse to believe that human nature is anything close to the backstabbing, manipulative, win-one-for-the-Team-as-long-as-I'm-not-the-one-getting-screwed reality that's presented on such gems as The Apprentice and Survivor.

Whatever happened to taking responsibility and admitting, "I screwed up. Me. No one else. It's not The Team's fault." Whatever happened to being human and, as such, being allowed to make the occasional mistake? Beyond being allowed, whatever happened to taking responsibility and saying, "I will try harder. Wait, I will do better. Period. Not for The Team. Screw The Team. I need to do a better job." Then act on that—calmly, constructively, swiftly.

The individual may cycle around again. It won't be called that, though. It'll be called something pithy like 'customized human utilization.'