Ten Organizational Design Models to align structure and operations to busines...
Building Strong Teams Through Lessons From The Tortoise And The Hare
1. Chapter # 10
Work Team, Team
Building
References:
http://www.slideshare.net (Good old lessons in teamwork from an age-old fable)
Internet
Resource person: Furqan-ul-haq Siddiqui
4. UNDERSTANDING WORK TEAMS
Team consists of employees from diverse
managerial and professional backgrounds working
for a specific period of time on certain projects.
According to Stephen Robbins a work team is a
collection of people whose individual efforts result
in a level of performance which is greater than the
sum of their individual contributions (synergy).
Cross-functional, multi-skilled, and self-directed group of employees responsible
for its own assignments, cost control, goals, quality control, work orders, work
scheduling, and other such duties and tasks. Work teams are most useful where job
content changes frequently and employees with limited skills and a specific set of
duties are unable to cope.
5. Good old lessons in teamwork
from an age-old fable
Picture 4
The Tortoise
Picture 3
And
The Hare
6. Once upon a time a tortoise and a
hare had an argument about who
was faster.
That’s not true.
The fastest runner is
me!
I’m the fastest Picture 5
runner.
7. They decided to settle
the argument with a race.
They agreed on a route Fine!
and started off the race.
Ok, let’s have Picture 3
a race.
8. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for
some time. Then seeing that he was far
ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit
under a tree for some time and relax
before continuing the race.
Poor guy! Even if I
take a nap, he
could not catch up
with me.
14. The hare was disappointed
at losing the race and he
did some soul-searching.
He realized that he'd lost Why did
the race only because he I lose
had been overconfident, the
careless and lax. If he had race?
not taken things for
granted, there's no way the
tortoise could have beaten
him.
15. So he challenged the
tortoise to another race.
The tortoise agreed. Ok.
Can we have Picture 2
another race?
16. This time, the hare went all
out and ran without stopping
from start to finish. He won
by several miles.
17. The moral of the story?
Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and
steady. If you have two people in your organization,
one slow, methodical and reliable, and the other fast
and still reliable at what he does, the fast and reliable
chap will consistently climb the organizational ladder
faster than the slow, methodical chap.
It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be
fast and reliable.
19. The tortoise did some thinking
this time, and realized that there's
no way he can beat the hare in a
race the way it was currently
formatted. How can
I can
win the
hare?
20. He thought for a while,
and then challenged
the hare to another Can we have another
race, but on a slightly race? This time we’ll go
different route. through a different route.
The hare agreed.
Sure!
Picture 2
21. They started off. In keeping with
his self-made commitment to be
consistently fast, the hare took off
and ran at top speed until he came
to a broad river. The finishing
line was a couple of kilometers Goal
on the other side of the river.
22. The hare sat there wondering what
to do. In the meantime the tortoise
trundled along, got into the river,
swam to the opposite bank,
continued walking and finished the
race.
What
should I
do?
23. The moral of the story?
First identify your core competency and then change the
playing field to suit your core competency.
In an organization, if you are a good speaker, make sure you
create opportunities to give presentations that enable the senior
management to notice you.
If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some sort of
research, make a report and send it upstairs.
Working to your strengths will not only get you noticed, but will
also create opportunities for growth and advancement.
25. The hare and the tortoise, by
this time, had become pretty
good friends and they did some Picture 3
thinking together. Both realized
that the last race could have
been run much better.
26. So they decided to do the
last race again, but to run Great! I think we
as a team this time. could do it much
better, if we two
help each other.
Hi, buddy. How Picture 2
about doing our last
race again?
27. They started off, and this time the
hare carried the tortoise till the
riverbank.
29. On the opposite bank, the hare
again carried the tortoise and they
reached the finishing line
together. They both felt a greater
sense of satisfaction than they'd
felt earlier.
30. The moral of the story?
It's good to be individually brilliant and to have
strong core competencies; but unless you're able to
work in a team and harness each other's core
competencies, you'll always perform below par
because there will always be situations at which
you'll do poorly and someone else does well.
Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership,
letting the person with the relevant core competency
for a situation take leadership.
31. There are more lessons to be learnt from this story.
Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures.
The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his
failure. The tortoise changed his strategy because he was
already working as hard as he could.
In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to
work harder and put in more effort. Sometimes it is appropriate
to change strategy and try something different. And sometimes it
is appropriate to do both.
The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When
we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing
against the situation, we perform far better.
32. To sum up, the story of the hare and
tortoise teaches us many things:
Never give up when faced with failure
Fast and consistent will always beat
slow and steady
Work to your competencies
Compete against the situation, not
against a rival.
Pooling resources and
working as a team will always
beat individual performers
33. Let’s go and build stronger teams!
Just remember the HOW…..!
word TEAMWORK Twelve Cs for Team Building
as a guideline. 2. Clear Expectations:
3. Context
T is for Talent
4. Commitment
E is for Enthusiasm 5. Competence
A is for Accountability 6. Charter
M is for Management 7. Control
W is for Work-able 8. Collaboration
W is for Work-able 9. Communication
10. Creative innovation
O is for Openness
11. Consequences
R is for Respect 12. Coordination
K is for Keenness 13. Cultural Change
Editor's Notes
T is for Talent By talent, I mean a person’s knowledge or capabilities. It is of course quite necessary for a member of a team to be knowledgeable about the work that his team is going to do. Where can these knowledge be gained? Knowledge can explicitly be learned from some useful handbooks on whatever you are working on. However, implicit knowledge – that which is acquired through experience and practice, is found to be much more useful. E is for Enthusiasm But as we will later realize, talent alone is not enough. A knowledgeable team member must also be enthusiastic. He must seek responsibility, he must find ways to make the talents he has useful. He must always have the energy and the drive to work. Eventually, this enthusiasm will naturally come out of him and he will realize that his example becomes so inspiring and motivating enough for his other teammates to work – without him asking them any demands. A is for Accountability Every member is accountable not only to his team but to all his other work mates. We are not responsible only of ourselves. It is everyone’s responsibility to keep others informed. Whenever someone keeps on forgetting what he needs to do, it is our responsibility to keep him reminded. What he failed to do is a reflection of what we were also not able to do ourselves. M is for Management Every member must know his specialization relative to what his other teammates can do best. A good organization is really needed in proper distribution of work. The best member of any group is he who demands work based on what he can do. When we are assigned to do or work on something, we must also know where to go for help (just in case we couldn’t work out on something), and when those help must be asked. Ultimately, it is every group member’s responsibility to ensure that everyone has a work to do and that every one is always the best man for his job. W is for Work-able When a person has all the talents and the enthusiasm in the world and yet he doesn’t have free time to work, it all turns out useless. Availability of every member is very much needed to work as a team. If no one’s there, who do you expect to pursue the team’s goals? This work-ability is not all about free-time, however, it also entails a large amount of adaptability. Every member must be able to expect different possibilities and must know how to react on them should they arise in the course of events. O is for Openness Understanding among team members is a necessity in every team for every member to be able to work in the best of his abilities. Everyone must be open to new ideas and suggestions. Everyone must have the capability to understand people. It is in keeping the communication lines open that the team can more efficiently achieve its goals. R is for Respect Every team member must be able to practice respect so that he can expect to be respected in return. A team could discuss things and every member could voice out his own opinion in whatever matter they are discussing without degrading his teammate or his teammate’s suggestions no matter how irrational they are. It is one thing to listen and be able to humbly object and it is another thing to just avoid to listen. Whenever a team is brainstorming, everyone must be able to raise his opinions without having any hard feelings. K is for Keenness Keenness is the final key in working as a part of a team. It is more than enthusiasm. Enthusiasm comes before doing the actual work. This keenness – this intensity, is manifested while going through the work itself. It is what pushes us to move on and keep on working until we are finally done.
