No body had a clue as to what would come next when our professor Mr. T Prasad a.k.a. Mr. Mandi gave us little wooden cubes with all the faces carrying the alphabet letters or symbols. The idea, as elaborated by Prof. Mandi, was to build a tower with these cubes. 'Simple exercise', I thought at first. I also grinned in my head when we were supposed to pre-determine the target we could achieve in terms of the height of the tower. Even though it seemed easy yet people were skeptical when asked to bet on their ability of achieving maximum height. I, being adventurous, at first bet on building a 30-cube high tower. What i observed was -
Even though people may fancy themselves good at something, yet only the ones who really trust their skills come forward when it matters.
Three of the most adventurous students came forward and bet on themselves. If you build what you have claimed then you get your money back else you go home with a lighter purse. The professor added a new twist when he mentioned that only one of them could build it with his left-hand (in case you are a right handed person) and that too blind-folded. One of the three i.e. the 'Builder' would direct the person actually doing it. The man left out can be considered akin to the 'Top Management' in a practical scenario whose work is to look out towards activities other than actual building for example say PR activities.
The students were then asked to speculate the target that these three wise men could achieve.
They were categorized based on their answer. But the important lesson that one can draw initially is that one must always have an idea of what has been achieved earlier.
Targets should be determined before you decide anything on as how to go about it. Thus, Goal setting is the need of the hour early on.
After last year's target of building a 17-cube high tower was mentioned, the task seemed very daunting.
Even though only three people were actually involved in the building process, yet somehow the class could not hold itself back from participating. Each one was quite eager in watching the fun unfold in the guise of learning. Or was it the other way around, i wonder. Prof. Mandi had definitely caught the fancy of one and all present there. It turned out that Team work is based on clear co-ordination between the stakeholders involved. The second most important factor that comes into play is that one entity should trust the other entity throughout. Then the next thing that you come across in such cases is that you have to be very well disciplined in you effort else something will give away and project may get stalled. Feedback at every stage is important as the rework gets minimized in case you wander off mid way. The video gives more idea about the underlying principles of successful management than words can ever will. It may take time but every new lesson is worth the time spent.
Thus I concluded that Team work thrives on
- Proper Co-ordination
- Mutual Trust
- Timely Feedback
- Disciplined Effort
- Clear Communication
(Picture courtesy: Ranjan Mondal)
p.s.
Every comment of mine here has been a personal observation. Any new insights are always invited.
