From Overcoming The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni:

Question #1: Are we really a team?

Sometimes a team improvement effort is doomed from the start because the group going through it isn’t really a team at all, at least not in the true sense of the word. You see, a team is a relatively small number of people (anywhere from three to twelve) that shares common goals as well as the rewards and responsibilities for achieving them. Team members readily set aside their individual or personal needs for the greater good of the group.

If your “team” doesn’t meet these criteria, you might want to consider whether you have a smaller subset of the group that is a real team. Or maybe the group is simply a collection of people who report to the same manager, but with relatively little interdependence and mutual accountability (that is, not a team).

And remember, it’s okay to decide that your group isn’t a team. In a world where teamwork is rarer than we might think, plenty of non-teams succeed. In fact, if your group is not meant to be a team, it’s far better to be clear about that than to waste time and energy pretending you’re something you’re not. Because that only creates false expectations, which leads to frustration and resentment.

I’ve been wondering a lot about defining a team as a group of people who receive rewards when those rewards are indirect e.g. there isn’t a financial reward. When working within a nonprofit context, there is impact (bettering the world) but not everyone involved is able to turn that into social or economic gain. In other words, the work you’re doing doesn’t advance your career from a skills/competency perspective, and your position doesn’t allow you to claim a significant leadership narrative that might accrue social benefit (thought leadership).