Team Work –Management lessons on Working Together from “Spiritual texts”

I have come across several instances, wherein people confined to what they are doing. They try to take over and do everything on its own. Sometimes this behavior is #successful in achieving small #goals, but when coming to #organizational goals, its not an easy thing to do. In the below article, I tried to discuss about situations, I experienced and faced in my day to day work. My #spiritual pursuit and interest in #Subhashitam have helped me in realizing importance of everything.

Even Great people needs others

Having spiritual interest and willingness to learn from ancestral texts mentioned in old Puranas, I learnt about one important #Subhashitams, which says:

“?????? ??????? ??????????????????? ? ????? ?? ???????????? ??????????? ? ??????? ???????? ???? ?“

“The rice grains cannot sprout without the husk covering it. Similarly, people capable of doing great things cannot perform without the help of others.”

Those who read Ramayana, knows that supreme Lord Rama took help of Monkey Soldiers to win the war from powerful Demon King Ravana. He himself was strategist, powerful and great fighter, but still took support from Monkey King Sugriv , fighter Angad, multi-talented lord Hanuman and advisors like Vibhishana and Jamwant. Similarly, presence of Great Guru and advisor Lord Krishna guided less numbered Pandavas to win over powerful and large army of Kaurvas.

 Every objective needs contribution from right People, required Processes and Technologies. Group of people (within and across function, geographies), Multiple processes and multiple technological platform work together to achieve every single goal. If somebody says, they can achieve either by changing process, or involving one person or one technology, it’s an illusion. I experienced, several successful projects, which got succeeded because it was not limited to Information Technology function. Business needs to own such transformation objectives, team needs to work on improving processes and write new rule book to transform or disrupt.

Entire ecosystem needs to work together to achieve a goal. Contribution may be little or more, but same commitment needed at all levels. Disruptions and business transformations needs skill development, team work from all stakeholders, acceptance and commitment at all levels.

Every partner is important

When coming to importance of each resource, Subhashitam further says

“????? ???????? ???? ????? ???????? ????????? ?????????? ??????? ??????????? ?“

One may have talent or not, but a project companion is an additional strength.

“Rice deprived of husk will not sprout. Presence of partner give you strength, courage and motive to move ahead. Even though partner is not skilled, but that presence helps. Like in cricket game, you still need a partner to continue your batting. “

During one of the digital transformation project, I was travelling to small town and team were explaining about digital solution, wherein salesmen were from rural background and they were used to work only on Facebook and WhatsApp before. I was personally present there to assess learning experience and gain feedback during training provided by Sales Team. I found local Sales Leader quite handy in understanding their queries and explaining our version in simple terms. Their examples of explaining a logic were simply superb. Although they were new to the platform, but their presence of mind, were giving us confidence in imparting training and their interpretation helped us in improving solution. Even a simple idea from them to have consistent feedback mechanism in App, helped us in developing needed functionalities in App to make it simple and interactive like WhatsApp.

Handling Difficult people

In every teamwork, you may come across different category of people. Subhashitam says on that also:

 “??????????? ????????? ????? ???????????? | ???????????????????? ? ?????????? ? ???????? || “

“This means a greedy person can be convinced by use of wealth (by facilitating through gifts). Hot tempered person can be convinced by being polite with him. A fool can be convinced by making him feel that you are acting as he wants. A wise person can be convinced by telling him the gist of the matter.”

Above tip from Subhashitam is so true in today’s world. Let us see some example for most famous Epic Ramayana. Lord Rama facilitated his friend King Sugriva with his kingdom Kishkindha and in exchange got full support of Monkey Army. When Lord Parshuram showed aggressive temperament during bow got broken by Lord Rama, Lord Rama showed great temperament and politely pacified Lord Parshuram . In another example, Lord Rama pleaded Sea patiently to show path to reach Lanka for 3 days, when sea didn’t hear his plea, on third day, he showed anger and made sea to come on knees and make him to help in his cause.

Several times, I have come across different people, some of those were, wise enough to understand, some were difficult to handle. They may work or may be challenging to make them work. Sometimes to avoid unnecessary debate, you may need to speak their language. Make them feel that you understand them, look out for others who can help. Making them feel that whatever he is telling is in a way right and we will make that happen. In a way, speaking their language, what they want to listen, helps.

You might be wondering “is that the right approach to agree on something you still disagree?”. There is nothing wrong in agree to disagree. Above Subhashitam says, try different ways and means to handle different people and situations. In my opinion also, if people or situation is hurdle in the objective, try whatever works for you. Even, at times, in our real life too, we face this situation. At times, in relations, I have said sorry for something, which I felt I am not responsible for. Yeah.. you got it right ??. It helped me in moving ahead. Feeling sorry doesn’t declares you as culprit. It’s the way to establish peace and move ahead. So wise men, work as per situation. Learn to be polite, calm, confront based on situation else work with opposition to bring them to your or organizational cause.

To summarize, leadership and talent can’t deliver alone. Attaining success needs working on people, process and technology. Every skilled or non-skilled resource is important as you can utilize every resource for some cause. Handle people and situation accordingly.

Today while talking to one friend, I learnt from him that "Every day you start from Zero", and it’s so true for us. I am still learning and looking forward to readers view on the topic to learn further. Thanks for readying this article and sharing your views.