Crossing the Valley of Learning

         This blog will discuss about the importance of Teamwork in an organization using an example of three people trying to cross a valley. Teamwork is defined in the dictionary as "work done by several associates with each doing a part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole." But there is no universally accepted definition of teamwork. While assembling a team, factors such as adaptability of individual members must be kept in mind. This will not only encourage the team members but also increase the team's performance.

          Team work is an indispensable part of any business as it is necessary for colleagues to work well together to bring out the best in them under any circumstances. The team members should be able to cooperate, using their individual skills and provide constructive feedback while handling personal conflicts, if any, between the individuals. A team should showcase a sense of unity, enthusiasm for common interests and responsibilities.

          To create a team is one thing but creating effective teamwork in the workplace is easier said than done. And similarly, it's one thing to join a team but quite another to perform as a team member. To put it in simple words, teams don't work without teamwork.

The Task:

          Valley crossing is a very interesting puzzle where three men holding a pole over their shoulders have to cross a valley. The valley is so wide that one cannot cross it in a single step but it requires less than 2 steps. The Valley Crossing can be explained by the following picture.

          

         The photo depicts the ideal realization of teamwork. In order to cross the valley of more than one step, there must be a team of three. If there are less than three members then the team cannot cross-over to the other side as the beam would not remain balanced and if there are any more number of members for the same gap, it would supersede the required resources. Similarly, in a team, if the number of people are less than the required number, the burden on each member would be more than what he/she can bear and the team would not succeed.

          In the photo, it is also evident that even if one of the members of the team is weak and is not able to support his share of the load, then the task to cross the valley will not be completed. Analogous to this, if in a team, any of the team members is weak and is not able to deliver his responsibilities, the team will not be able to complete the task.

The exercise consists of 9 steps, wherein each of the three people go through the three states namely: 

1. Fully Safe
2. Half Safe
3. Fully Unsafe

Moreover, each person goes through the Fully Safe state 6 times, Half Safe state twice and Fully Unsafe state once.

Learnings from this exercise:

Team work – It is necessary for the organisation that the teams work in harmony. Lack of team-spirit, not only hampers the performance of that particular team but also the entire organisation.

Participative leadership – Different from the tradition approach of a authoritarian team leader. 

Co-ordinative relationship – The bonds between the team members allow them to seamlessly coordinate their work to achieve both efficiency and effectiveness. In today’s fast moving world, even a delay of few seconds can cause major losses. Perfect co-ordination between the numerous chains involved ensures that we get the desired results.

Defined roles and responsibilities – each team member understands what they must do (and what they must not do) to demonstrate their commitment to the team and to support team success. Furthermore the roles and  responsibilities keep on changing depending on the situation.

Open and clear communication – Communication is the key to crossing the valley effectively. Just like in this puzzle, in real life organisations rapid and continuous flow of information in both directions is of utmost importance. Neither the employees nor the managers should be kept in the dark about new developments, however unsettling they may be.  The interdependence among team members increases as we go higher up the corporate ladder. As a worker or low level employee, we can usually get away with completing the task without much interdependence (even though effectively using the team's collective strength may increase productivity). But as we go to strategic level, it is almost impossible to go about a task without the expertise/skill/opinion of your team mates.  Thus Interdependence and its effective usage is crucial for a manager.

Managing conflict – Dealing with conflict openly and transparently and not allowing grudges to build up and destroy team morale.

Mutual trust – Every person needed to trust each other completely especially when their feet was off the ground. Trust is of utmost importance, be it in personal relationships or professional ones. Lack of trust creates doubts and becomes a major headwind for smooth flow of information.

Clear goals – The goals were clear, defined and each member in the team fully understood the gravity of the problem.

Positive atmosphere – an overall team culture that is open, transparent, positive, future-focused and able to deliver success.

Recognition for the job done – Quite often we come across people who get their tasks done by their team mates. One of the flip side of team work is that our efforts may go unrecognised or even worse credited to the wrong person. In a competitive and performance oriented environment like ours, it is important to see through these ploys.

Some of the good work practices that I have found in my team in my previous organization are as follows:

1. Properly communicating the work done to superiors.
2. Pro-actively using the teams strength for overcoming problems.
3. Pro-actively helping members who are in need.
4. Effective participation in meetings, team events.