What I felt about this Workshop "Team Play"?

                                                       TEAM  PLAY

This workshop that I attended was an experience for me. The workshop was exhaustive and left us, the participants gasping for more. The congenial environment that was created for the workshop was incredible and now, when it has been two days since it ended I can still feel the warmth. 

It was organized an facilitated by Samatvam Academy.

The way the whole program was designed did not actually teach but made us experience, experiment, feel, explore, contemplate and finally realize the whole concept.  

And I met this person – Gary Guller there. Oh man! He made a lasting impression on me. It’s a privilege to meet such people. The way he spoke about his experience has such a lasting impression on my mind that I think that not only I remember his whole experience but I even felt to be a part of his experience? Such was his passion. He has a world record as a first man with one hand to conquer the Mt. Everest summit and a world record for leading the largest cross disability team to the base camp of Mt. Everest.

I would share with you all in brief about what I learnt or realized about Team Play from this workshop.

We all have read, said and experienced the definition of a Team i.e. “A group of people coming together and working for a common goal.” But has our thought wandered into the labyrinth of a team formation and its excellence?

This workshop exemplifies this process which a team undergoes to its way to success or achievement. Accordingly a team undergoes the following three stages/phases:-

1. Appreciation – where we get to know our team members.
2. Reconciliation – where we get to decide as to how we can work together.
3. Accomplishment – where we achieve the set goal working together.

It looks simple. Isn’t it? What is the big deal in it would be your thought? But let me ask as to how many of us go through these phases or stages in the given order while forming a team or working in a team. Think, retrospect and then answer to yourself. Let me explain the three stages in order to facilitate your thinking.

Appreciation – What does the word Appreciation literally means? Appreciation, admiration, gratitude, respect, high regard etc. What does this mean? Aren’t these words giving a positive kind of feeling? Yes, it means finding the positivity or you may even say positive strengths of your team members. Why only positive strengths? Because, these positive strengths of your team members will work for you and the whole team. It is the process of interviewing.

Let me cite an example where you can relate with it. We all have played cricket during childhood in our nearest park or the nearest lane and how did we choose the team? Didn’t we appreciate each member’s strength as batsman, bowler and fielder before setting out to play and faltered when not done.

Now, I think one can relate it to his/her experience. 

Reconciliation – What does it mean? Understanding, settling, bringing together and what else. To me it is like fitting the blocks of different size together to give a defined shape. Can you relate to any of your team building experience? I can again relate to the same example of the cricket team. After knowing the strengths of each member the roles are defined and a batting line up is made or a field is set to win the match.

Yes, it is the process of putting the pieces together so that they fit well and function together efficiently. This is the process where we define roles of each member in the team and set norms for the team to function and not falter in between.

Accomplishment – Now, I don’t have to churn this word to make you understand this last stage/phase of a Team Play. It is the stage in which we plunge into action and come out victorious but it will only happen when we are prepared with our action plan with each member’s role defined according to their strengths or field of play. 

It’s easy, simple but we don’t realize it many a times. Actually it happens with a human mind, it is drawn towards the greater picture neglecting the minute pieces that come together to construct it. We tend to not realize the effort of the people behind the scene after watching a great movie. The same way we and our mind are both drawn to the bigger picture or the field of play/action and neglect the importance of the preparation to be victorious. 

Vilfredo Pareto, a 19th century economist, theorized that most effects come from relatively few causes; that is, 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the possible causes (Juran, 1988). For example, 20 percent of the inventory items in the supply chain of an organization accounts for 80 percent of the inventory value. This is known as the Pareto principle or the 80-20 rule.

Some teams fall into the time wasting trap of going after the 80 percent of items that only have a value of 20 percent of the total net worth. Your visions need to picture the 20 percent that will have the greatest impact on your organization. Although it is nice to have small victories every now and then by going after that easy 80 percent, spend the majority of your time focusing on the few things that will have the greatest impact. 

This workshop did bring these grave mistakes of ourselves on the table in front of us to realize that yes we tend to do mistakes even if we are aware of the process in place. 

In my opinion this applies even for people working individually. All the entities that constitutes me, myself can be considered as members of a team i.e. me; like my mind, my intelligence, my skill, my experience, my mental endurance, my physical strength, my surroundings etc. Following the process of Appreciation, Reconciliation and Accomplishment for these team members will also bring successful achievement of the set goals.