Thinking Aloud!

Being part of a successful team is both
rewarding and enjoyable experience. But I often wonder what
makes a team successful. Ok, I am not a very successful guy
yet, but still I have had few “team experiences” in past
years and I thought it will be worthwhile to discuss whether
I can be a good team member or leader for that matter and
what made the teams great or not-so-good.

First of all as I have never played
much cricket/football/hockey so the only experience I have
of sports teams is in relay race or badminton. Nothing much
can be said about these, you run as fast as you can and
that’s all you can do for a relay team (of course
co-ordination is needed when passing the batten but that’s
not very difficult.)

Next, I have participated in few
robotics/circuit designing/programming competitions. In the
programming competitions there isn’t much problem; usually I
work on one problem and the other guy works on the next and
so on. The problem arises in robotics and other such events
where hardware part is involved and all the portions are
very closely inter-related. Usually I am the one who starts
working on the design and as the work progresses it turns
out that I am doing the most of the work and the other
guy/gal is sitting idle even if they want to work. Its not
that I don’t have faith in their work but the usual course
of events is like this:

• I make the frame and then think 
  yaar chalo ab Tushar ko itni door se kya boolana, motors
  bhi jod hi deta hoon.
• Next motors are ready, then I
  think chalo ek baar uske aane se pahle chala ke dekh
  loon….
• Motors chal gayi but ab Tushar ko
  koi kaam pad st=”on”>gaya….hmmmm…. chalo sensor
  bhi test kar ke dekh leta hoon.
• Sensors working fine…..yaar
  inko motor ke saath jod hi leta hoon…..
• And guess what when dear Tushar
  reaches my home the robot is happily running on the test
  course!!

What would you call such a team? If the
design was good, we may win the prize but my partner will
think yaar usne koi kaam to karne nai diya, fir team ka
kya fayda?

Maybe it is not very common that people
will not want to work with a guy who does all the work. But
believe me, I have had comments like “you have done all
the work and I don’t feel good to take the credit for it”.
Hmmm so nice of you….but its not very pleasant when people
use this excuse to avoid working with you next time!

Or very recently “I will do the
soldering this time” and what goes in my mind is like
this… “chalo badhiya hai, I know she wont be able to do
it very nicely and shayad mujhe soldering ke saath saath
desoldering bhi karni pade…but if it makes her happy then
theek hai…..”

The working solution that I have found
for this is that usually I do the critical parts and the
others do the background work but still I know most of the
times my partners are not satisfied and that too because of
not getting much work.

I don’t know where is the problem, why
cant people understand that many times you need partners not
because you can’t do all the work on your own but because
working alone is not fun! Why can’t you just sit watching me
doing the work and pointing out the mistakes that I make or
the improvements that can be done? Of course I may be able
to do it alone but it might not be that good and certainly
it will be way too boring to work alone. Even if I came up
with all the ideas while discussing the solutions, I won’t
have thought about it so deeply if I had been alone or even
if I made all the hardware, I won’t have worked for so long
without company of others.

What is the problem if your inclusion
can increase the other guys productivity? Because the main
objective of making a team is to get more work done by
involving more people but if it means that you wont do all
the “dirty work” then whats the problem? If I am missing
something here do let me know yaar!

 
posted by Sumit Tada @ 4:04 PM

5 Comments:

  Anonymous said…

Yaar it would have been commendable
if you had mentioned(after the robot story) that

*)then tushar visits my place around 8:30pm and we both
discover that the robbo singh(Sumit’s creation) isnt working
on the track for which it was intended.

*)dejected ,tushar moves back to his place

*)but then i change the design,thoda jugaad ladaya,n alas
robo singh is done with.(Time is 6:30 in the morning)

*)Next day,tushar is 2:30 hours late for the competition(as
usual he is fast asleep),but i still won 2nd prize(i mean
the team won the 2nd prize)

*)and a trivia to be revealed,there are 2 other members in
the team(obviously in background)

*)and the latest development in this story,all the team
members are awarded with a certificate except…..yes you
are right ,its me who is still waiting for 1.

so now you can make out that i am a one man army…

So thats all from my side,do include it

Tushar

 
7:51 PM, February 01, 2006


   

 
Sumit Tada said…

Tushar

He he he!Yaar yeh to kuchh zyada ho jata,isnt it? Hmm but
all u said is true… Anyways thanks for reminding about
those good times ;-)……and guess wat even today I forgot
to take my certi from Arshdeep! Guess I dont deserve it 

 
8:48 PM, February 01, 2006


   

  Anonymous said…

nice blog.

good idea of expressing ur feelings about someone.

it is a good thing that u can work alone but it is good to
have someone with u.

about ur art ,that is the thing i never expected from a
techie like u.thats a godgift to u.keep that artistic human
inside u alive as long as u can.

sonu and lalit

 
12:34 PM, February 03, 2006


   

 
Sumit Tada said…

Sonu & Lalit

First of all Welcome to my blog….

Haan yaar yeh hi to main kah raha hoon,its better to work
with someone.

About my art,in fact it seems it has got a bit rusty of
late,i will try to revive it!

 
3:14 PM, February 03, 2006


   

 
Ashley said…

Hi, As part of a sports related
degree, I’m doing some research into some Badminton related
search ‘keywords’ e.g. ‘badminton racket’. I’ve used

badminton racket to contact people but I need more
input. Any suggestions on where to look?

Thnx