Team work is probably the clichéd
term of many organizations these days. Often you see recruiters stressing on
the importance of working together as a team. It is said that one’s ability to
work in a team is more significant factor in today’s world than his/her skill
set. So what exactly is this team. Why is it so important? Our world has
survived and moved on, by the excellence of many individuals. When we have
survived so many years by individual performances, we often studied in our
schools, why is this TEAM such an important thing these days. What’s the buzz
behind it.
What is a Team?
A team is defined as a group of
people working and influencing each other toward a common goal. The effort they
put in to achieve the goal is known as Team effort or most of the times TEAM
WORK.
Gone are the days when smoke
stacked organizations used to operate on hierarchical models, containing
individuals who are assigned an entire activity, who are often called
Specialists. With the advancement in technology and the grand scale of
operations, specialists gave way to individuals among whom the activity is
granulised and assigned.
How we interpreted team-work
in class:- In our
childhood days, we were used to allegory, where every topic of a subject was
beautifully narrated in the form of a story, which had a moral to it. In our
class today we exactly did the same. What else could be a better way to learn
than from a story!!!! We took the story of 3 monks and tried understand the
concepts of team work and its importance. The three monks represent different
individuals of a team or an organization. Let us first look at each of the
monks and their traits.
Characteristics of 1st Monk:-
1. He
was humane. He saved a turtle on the way to the temple.
2. He
is motivated by the situation he is into. When he was alone, he took the
responsibility of watering the plant. But when Monk 2 was with him the other
day, he was happy to see Monk 2 going to the pond, instead of helping him.
3. He
was short. Technical skill set is more important than physical strength for any
individual
Characteristics of 2nd Monk:-
1. He
was humane too. He saved a butterfly on the way to the temple.
2. He
was lazy and not self-motivated. He drank all the water, brought by monk 1 on
day 1. Though he got water from the pond on day1, he asked the help of 1st
Monk on day2.
3. He
was tall and well built.
Characteristics of 3rd Monk:-
1. He
was humane too. He saved a fish on the way to the temple.
2. He
was self-centred. He drank all the water,
brought by other monks on day 1. Though he got water from the pond, he himself
tried to drink all the water he got.
3. He
was stout.
Scenario 1:-
Monk 1 and 2 go to pond to get
water to the temple.
Each of the monks tries to pass
on the weight to the other and thereby making an easy task of carrying water a
tough one. Monk1 tries to point out the line of division using his hand. Monk2
denies and uses his own hand to identify the line of division. Finally Monk1
gets a ruler and indentifies the line of division with mutual consent. Monk2
lends support giving his hand as marker during measurements.
Management Lessons:
1. Always
use the standardized tools of measurement, which is universally accepted.
2. The
work has to be designed in such a way that it is divided equally among the
members.
3. All
the members of the team have to contribute and mutually decide the terms of
work order.
Scenario 2:-
The temple catches fire. The
three monks had to douse the fire off.
Management Lessons:
1. Team
work is important than individual performance. Though each of the priests had
the ability to get the water from pond, they could not douse the fire off.
2. The
monks have divided the entire line of action into 3 equal parts. Thus work has
to be divided equally.
3. When
you work collectively as a team, you can generate more practical ideas.
