Working in Teams

Good old lessons in teamwork

from an age-old fable

The Tortoise
And
The Hare
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

runner.
They decided to settle
the argument with a race.
They agreed on a route Fine!
and started off the race.

Ok, let’s have

a race.
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.
He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep.
The tortoise plodding on overtook
him and soon finished the race,
emerging as the undisputed champ.
The hare woke up and realized that he'd
lost the race.
The moral of the story is that slow and steady
wins the race.

This is the version of the story that we've all

grown up with.
The story continues …
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 race?
careless and lax. If he had
not taken things for granted,
there's no way the tortoise
could have beaten him.
So he challenged the
tortoise to another race.
The tortoise agreed. Ok.

Can we have
another race?
This time, the hare went all
out and ran without stopping
from start to finish. He won
by several miles.
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.
But the story doesn't end here
…
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?
He thought for a while,
and then challenged
the hare to another race, Can we have another race?
but on a slightly This time we’ll go
different route. through a different route.
The hare agreed.

Sure!
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.
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?
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.
The story still hasn't ended …
The hare and the tortoise, by
this time, had become pretty
good friends and they did some
thinking together. Both realized
that the last race could have
been run much better.
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

about doing our last
race again?
They started off, and this time the
hare carried the tortoise till the
riverbank.
There, the tortoise took over and
swam across with the hare on his
back.
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.
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.
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.
When Roberto Goizueta took over as CEO of Coca-Cola in
the 1980s, he was faced with intense competition from Pepsi
that was eating into Coke's growth. His executives were
Pepsi-focused and intent on increasing market share 0.1 per
cent a time.

Roberto decided to stop competing against Pepsi and instead

compete against the situation of 0.1 per cent growth.
He asked his executives what was the average fluid intake of
an American per day? The answer was 14 ounces. What was
Coke's share of that? Two ounces. Roberto said Coke needed
a larger share of that market. The competition wasn't Pepsi. It
was the water, tea, coffee, milk and fruit juices that went into
the remaining 12 ounces. The public should reach for a Coke
whenever they felt like drinking something.

To this end, Coke put up vending machines at every street

corner. Sales took a quantum jump and Pepsi has never quite
caught up since.
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
Let’s go and build stronger teams!
 What is a Team

Team is a unified and

cohesive group of small
number of people where
each member needs
resources and support
from others to achieve a
common purpose goal
for which they are all
mutually responsible.
 TEAM

• Together

• Everyone

• Achieves

• More
 Common Goal

• Provides purpose, focus and

direction for teamwork

• Motivates Members – they see

themselves as contributing to a
worthwhile team endeavour
Without Common Goals

Team is aimless
Poor co-ordination and inefficient
use of resources
No basis for follow-up and reward
Less than optimum team
productivity
 Advantages of Teams
More minds working on the problem
More information available
Leads to a better decision
Ownership of decisions
More people committed to the decision
Better chance for support of solutions to the problem
Continuity
Less need to “re-invent the wheel” in later efforts
Better chance of constancy in follow-up activities
Communication
Face to face contact can increase trust & understanding
Interpersonal skills improved through joint work
 Stages of Team Development
Forming Storming
Initial awareness Sorting out process
(1) (2)

Performing Norming
Maturity Self-organisation
(4) (3)
Stages of Team Development
Forming
Introductions
Basic rules established & objectives agreed on
Storming
Characterized by conflict and disagreement
50% of teams fail at this point
Norming
Tolerance of others’ views, opinions
Good working relationship, Team is becoming
productive
Conflicts and resolved or at least “agree to disagree”
Performing
Appreciation of others views, opinions, talents
Characterized by very high productivity
High level of synergy
Theories are Boring ……..

Let’s hear another Story……

A man was lost while driving through
the country. As he tried to reach for
the map, he accidentally drove off the
road into a ditch. Though he wasn't
injured, his car was stuck deep in the
mud. So the man walked to a nearby
farm to ask for help.
 "Warwick can get you out of that
ditch," said the farmer, pointing to an
old mule standing in a field.
The man looked at the decrepit old
mule and looked at the farmer who
just stood there repeating, "Yep, old
Warwick can do the job."
The man figured he had nothing to
lose. The two men and the mule made
their way back to the ditch.
The farmer hitched the mule to the car.
With a snap of the reins, he shouted,
"Pull, Fred!
Pull, Jack!
Pull, Ted!
Pull, Warwick!"

And the mule pulled that car right out of

the ditch.
The man was amazed. He thanked the
farmer, patted the mule, and asked,
"Why did you call out all of those
names before you called Warwick?"

The farmer grinned and said,

"Old Warwick is just about blind.
As long as he believes he's part of
a team, he doesn't mind pulling."
Teamwork involves
Respecting the rights of others
Being a team worker
Being cooperative
Being assertive
Displaying a customer service
attitude
Seeking opportunities for
continuous learning
 Your Role in a Team
Team leader and Team member
Linkman between members
Facilitator of resources
Problem solver
Personal
Technical
Organisational
Conflict Resolver
Problems in Teamwork
Problems in Teamwork
Pressure towards conformity
Pressure towards mediocre
performance
Shirking individual responsibility
Breeding conflict
Individual dominance
Groupthink
Team myopia
Lets play a game
• Blind Drawing
To be an effective team member,
you must:

Act with initiative

about getting the job
done; do not wait to be
told what to do.
To be an effective team member,
you must:

Avoid being rigid about

procedures; be flexible
and receptive to doing
things differently.
To be an effective team member,
you must:

Try never to take

advantage of
co-workers.
To be an effective team member,
you must:

Never let your

emotions take
control over you.
To be an effective team member,
you must:

Share the sense of

accomplishment from
a job well done.
To be an effective team member,
you must:

Do not expect others

to do things “your
way.”
Be a team member!
Effective Team Work is about:
Good Leadership
Effective Communication
Defining Clear cut Roles
Creating procedures for conflict
resolutions
Setting good examples and
Leading from front
Be a team leader!
 Learn to Motivate your Team
• Be sincere in everything you do
• Be genuinely interested in your employees
as people. Show you care:
– Communicate openly and honestly
– Acknowledge performance and behaviour
– Recognise accomplishments
– Encourage them to give their best
• Give positive feedback
• Be consistent with your team
• How to motivate your Team
• GAME
Motivation
 Motivation

What is motivation?
Why motivation?
Importance of motivation
Better motivation
How to be motivated?
 What is Motivation

An inferred process within an

animal or an individual that
causes that organism to move
towards a goal
Motivational cycle
Need, Drive

Goal
To Motivate Others,
You Need to be
Motivated
 Stay Upbeat and Positive
Laugh it up (Appropriate Humor)
Be cooperative and approachable
Practice open communication
Stay calm
Be part of the solution, not the problem
Choose your friends
Share good news
Finding Personal Motivation
 Take pride in your work
 Practice good time-management skills
 Pat yourself on the back
 Indulge your passion, whether at work or after
hours
 Take classes to indulge your creative side
 Make time for friends
 Do something totally different from your work
 Relax over the weekends
 Take a vacation
 Change your routine, get a different perspective
 Pay attention to your health
• Video
Coming together is a
beginning,
Keeping together is
progress,
Working together is
success.
Henry Ford
Thank You
Brief
Each team represents a department which has to submit a bid
each month period end for a budget allocation to cover the
following month.
The ED(Works) has developed a system of dynamic control,
which he allocates personally, based on the bids received from
the 4 departments.
Each department will bid one of the two terms, i.e., either X or Y.
Bids will be made in secret according to the table in the following
page and the results will be announced after receiving all the
bids.
The 4 departments should bid to maximize the allocation.
From time to time special conditions will be announced.
 Each team must bid X or Y for each month the
activity continues. Use the following table to bid:

Number of Number of Each Team Team

X bids Y bids bidding X bidding Y
will get (Rs) will get
4X - + 10 crore -

3X 1Y - 10 crore + 30 crore

2X 2Y - 10 crore + 10 crore

1X 3Y - 30 crore + 10 crore

- 4Y - - 10 crore
 Team Record
Month Bid 1 2 3 4
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August