My experience in building a High-Performance Team

In the year 2003, National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) (https://www.nabard.org/) recruited about a hundred and fifty direct recruit Grade A officers. I was then a Faculty Member at NABARD’s Staff College (NBSC) in Lucknow. At NBSC, we were expected to conduct a 3-month Induction Program before the new recruits were formally inducted into the organisation. The new recruits joined in batches of 30, with one of the Faculty assigned to be the coordinator and mentor for each batch.

Most of them just out of college, these youngsters enter organisations full of energy, enthusiasm and a dream of doing something meaningful for themselves & the organisation they join. How you receive them and treat them when they enter defines the way they respond and integrate into the organisation, and more importantly, how they perform.

Being co-ordinator of the second batch of new recruits was like being a foster father to them, caring for their every need, be it personal or professional, and responding to their every question or concern. One of the challenges was getting such a diverse set of young people into a coherent team? As time passed, as a group, we became very close, and I turned more a friend than a supervisor.

Apart from the history of the organisation and the technical skills of work, a third of the training sessions are devoted to imparting soft-skills such as communication, inter-personal relations, team building and leadership.

Putting the skills to test

One Friday of the training, at 2 pm, I threw at my batch a challenge. Can we all go to watch a Hindi movie on the First Day First Show at 6 pm today, at a Cinema located on the other side of town? Some latched on to the idea & got excited about it, some remained indifferent, and didn’t seem to find interest in the idea, and some said they had their own plans for the weekend. I put just one non-negotiable condition for the exercise. Either everyone goes or nobody does. Period.

The next training class was about to begin, and so did the many challenges, which included mobilising the money for hiring a vehicle to the travel to cinema and purchase of tickets (it was before they got their first pay check), negotiating with the faculty handling the next class to grant permission for some of them to miss class to work on tasks like logistics, hiring vehicles, purchasing tickets, etc.

It was certainly a mammoth task, a race against time. A team of two left for the cinema to book/buy tickets. As was expected, being the day of release of the movie, tickets were not available in one block. Those that were available were for different classes, and all told were not enough for everyone. The hiring of vehicles also ran into a wall, as hiring at such short notice was difficult. They found just two Scorpios. The rest decided to do some instant travel on whatever mode was available. Since classes conclude at 4:30 pm, quick action was needed to reach the cinema before the movie started at 6 pm through the maze of Lucknow traffic, where on a normal week day it would be an hour’s drive. The Team spirit was high, as we took off from the NBSC Campus. The interns insisted I join them on the adventure, so I was pulled-out of an official meeting to accompany them.

Being an old run-down cinema, a full house and with scattered seats among a typical north-Indian boisterous crowd required seating plan to be strategic. With over ten girls in the batch, boys had to be placed on the flanks to ‘protect’ the girls. The choice of who sat with whom were again lessons in management. Tickets were not adequate, so buying some tickets in ‘black’, was another assignment. The guys who took the public transport were still on their way, by the time the movie started, so some had to wait outside to usher them in on arrival. Some volunteered to occupy the first-row seats, on movable wooden benches that normally are kept for the worker class. Inspite of the meticulous planning, one guy was too late and didn't get entry.

The name of the movie we saw, none in the batch may remember today, but the experience of that evening, none would forget. The bonding that this one small random exercise brought about stayed with the batch over the rest of the program. The young people opened-up to each other in ways that hadn’t happened thus far. The spirit of sharing & caring became second nature within the group. Plans were made to replicate the event, never happened, though small group activities mushroomed. Our batch became so strong and menacing that the other batches and their co-ordinators felt jealous & intimidated.

We ended up being the stars of the entire training, and ran away with most of the recognition & prizes, wherever there was any competition, not because we had the best talent, but because we were the best co-ordinated.

When such close bonding happens, parting is painful and emotional. We wanted the last day of training to be a day of celebration. It surely was, but as the day wore on, the fact that we were parting sunk-in. We formed a circle, held each other’s hands, closed our eyes and reflected on the time spent together. I then asked each one to reach-out to the one whom they felt closest to, to express their thanks. To those in the group who had difficulty relating to someone, I encouraged them to make-up before leaving. It was an exhilarating experience.

Among all the new recruits who joined NABARD that year, our batch stood-out in terms of integrating within the organisation, having a positive attitude, and most importantly, performance at work. Because they excelled, (being already gems, having made it through the rigors and robust selection process of NABARD), they excelled wherever they went. Some shone professionally and moved-on from NABARD. Nitinjit Singh became an IPS officer (works in Orissa), Azgar Zain joined IRS (is a JC of Income Tax in Mumbai), some got selected as Grade B officers in RBI, and some found greener pastures in the private sector (Sugat & Rohit are guys I can't forget). I knew this would be. We need to give talent to the nation, and not remain selfish about keeping them all to ourselves. Those who continued their career in NABARD like Rajiv, Rajesh & Sanjeev have all risen to positions of responsibility. Even today, after so many years, their names I can't forget. Irrespective of where they are professionally or personally the bond between us remains strong to this day.

Building a High Performance Team in an Institution, particularly in the Public Sector, many wouldn’t be sure how to make happen. We tried, we did, and it worked!

Why don’t you make a try? And if you have tried and succeeded, do share your story.