I had about 30 months of experience in a leading IT firm before I joined a B-School to do my MBA. I had always wondered during my stint at my workplace as to how differently each individual’s reaction, behaviour and expectation vary. Thinking of the team leaders, the project managers and the resource managers, who handled all this and much more strained my eyebrows. A multi lingual team would have bigger problems and this would escalate even further if we extend the team to a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural unit. This is not so uncommon to visualize in today’s world, thanks to the Globalization of the Working environment. I could imagine that various tools did exist by which these mortal men could carry out the seemingly impossible tasks of managers, but wondered where to seek them, until I was in my second term of my MBA.
The Inter Group Process course started with aiding us with the tools of self-evaluation and personality test for judging others. This was important as we need to know ourselves and find out the problems within us, to completely correct ourselves wherever and whenever necessary. This tool would come handy while evaluating the personality traits of others for forming efficient groups. A manager can utilize the deductions from the tests to decide on how to behave with each member of his group, as we know - no two men can behave in the same way. The two tools that we used were the FIRO-B and the Johari Window. I learnt that I was more of a closed person who expects others to include me in their outings and teams. I found out that many of my characteristics were known to my friends but I was not altogether an open book. I was able to keep things to myself when necessary. This was needed as much of the business world works on the belief that managers would be judicious enough to decide what information to share and what must not leak out.
During the different sessions in the course, we learnt not just the theoretical aspects of a subject but experienced the implications practically as well. The short plays in the class on ‘Power and Politics’ were thought provoking to say the least. In the play, we learnt how men in power misuse their position, sometimes unknowingly, to suppress their subordinates and go in for a more dictatorial approach. This might be beneficial in the short term, but it affects the positive attitude that a team should have while working together. The power of ‘Persuasion and Influence’ also relates closely with the above discussion.
Talking about cohesiveness, I remember having had a case study on cohesiveness that brought out the truth regarding the brighter side of it as well as the effects of overdose of it. Cohesive teams have a very strong bonding among each other and the members relish doing the work together. They carry out difficult tasks without stressing out themselves overtly. The productivity of the team increases. Nevertheless, the overdose of cohesiveness cannot be neglected. Sometimes, teams start putting their objectives ahead of the company’s. They make a norm of doing less work, encourage loss of accuracy and collect ‘illegal bonuses’ to fulfil their own objectives. The manager has to keep an open eye on whether the thin line between cohesiveness and callousness is crossed.
There exists a similar thin line between cooperative behaviour and collaborative behaviour among employees. We did a case study on the movie, Chakh de India. We analysed how competition within a team was detrimental to the team’s cause. The team needed to gel well and collaborate. They need to fight for a common cause, a well-defined objective. Here, the objective of the team, as we all know, was to win the World Cup, a distant dream till then. Again, we realized how external competition is healthy. It improves the overall performance of each of the competitors. External Competition encourages innovation and growth.
From the start of the movie, it was shown that they were not able to overcome the roles that they had played in their previous assignment. Each of the members was introducing themselves as players from their home states. They didn’t realize that they are here for a new assignment, and now their introduction should be that they are representing India. Next, we saw how the two forwards competed for the most number of goals. It resulted in a weak link in the team formation that could have been exploited by the opponents, had it not been the proactive coach who corrected the behaviours of the members. The coach played the role of a relationship based leader and therefore was successful in bringing out the best in each of the team members when needed by eliminating the personal problems that they faced time and again. He believed in strategy and practice and never neglected any one the two, and with time, the team started performing like champions, ultimately winning the World Cup in Women’s Hockey for India.
The movie also briefly touched upon the effects of groupthink when Vidya, the captain, did not raise her voice against the other members when they decided to kick out the coach, Kabir Khan. She was trying to avoid conflicts and disagreements and thus was a victim of groupthink. Another documentary on the investigation of the space shuttle Discovery’s disastrous accident was shown in the class. It brought to light the fatal effects of groupthink behaviour to an organization, if not dealt upon well in time. Another parallel concept is that of Abeline paradox. In this case, a group decides to do something that none of the members wanted to do, but each one has agreed thinking that the other members want to do this. This is a potential threat to any strategic team decisions. To avoid this paradox, we must always communicate well with the other team members saying, ‘I do not want to do this, but because you all want to, I am in’. This might well trigger a debate within your team enabling it to a better group decision.
I would like to describe the stages of group formation and its functioning by citing an example. We had to carry out a multimedia project and the members of the team were randomly picked up from the different sections of the school by the facilitator. It was a simulation closest to real world situations where members with different skill sets are picked up from across domains and verticals for a common project. I had never interacted with four out of the eight members; one of them was from my section, while luckily I had one who was a close friend of me. I was randomly picked up as the leader. I called in the meeting to decide on how to go about the project.
When we met, the first few occasions, we didn’t talk much, and sometimes we cross chatted during meetings. We made subgroups within our team and we started offending the very objectives of the team for which it was formed – To be productive. Someone or the other always resisted any new idea that arose. We were all fighting for our own idea and not for the team’s cause. Also, there were some who chose to stay away from the meetings. Now I realize that we were moving from the first stage of group formation, Forming, to the second stage, Storming. I knew that it was my job, as a leader, to understand each member and try to develop a bonding within the team by giving equal chances to everyone to participate in the meetings, so as to overcome this phase and pass onto the next phase, the Norming. A few meetings after, we saw a metamorphic change within ourselves. We were listening and appreciating to what others were saying. The criticisms became constructive and the objective was to improve. We finally were able to come to a consensus that we would go on with a remake of yesteryear’s Bollywood blockbuster, ‘Sholay’.
By now, we were gelling well as a team. We talked sense during the meetings and a sense of professionalism had become a part of each one of us. We as a group analysed each other’s strengths and decided on each one’s roles and responsibilities. Next was the ‘Performing’ stage. Without this, the very existence of the team would stand in danger. We enacted the short play and recorded it. The editing was done and the final video was submitted well within deadline. The structured formation of the team and the hard work paid off. Our video was among the very few to be screened in the MPH in front of all our classmates and our faculty. Lots of cheers and applause felicitated us. The video on Sexual harassment won the first prize and the actresses, Deepa and Kritika, were cheered. The fun part is that the villain is still booed in the college corridors.
One of the last sessions in IGP dealt with Flash Mobs. Flash mobs were an alien concept in India until recently, when a group performed in Mumbai railway station, in front of a completely surprised crowd and the whole event was recorded and shared on Youtube and other online social media like Facebook. It was a mega hit with millions of views within a few days. We tried to analyse the behaviour of Mobs and their effects on the society. We concluded that this particular event was over hyped and tried to gain media coverage for personal profits. Nevertheless, flash mobs and street plays have their own advantages. These tools can easily connect with the common mass and can also deliver the message in a more effective manner. They are generally used when you are speaking against the existing system. Hence, as managers, we must be very careful while using these tools.
In today’s global world, managers have a new hurdle to overcome – Virtual Teams. We see this concept being practiced in IT and BPOs very effectively. Members in a virtual team have the freedom to work as per their own time. They need not come to office to work and they practice working from home. The members may be from different time zones and from different countries making the virtual team a diverse one. The lesson was important for us, the future managers, to understand the changing dynamics and rapidly involving complexities of the office space.
The last session of the IGP course was an icing on the cake. We met in the MPH again among random groups and we were given an objective to complete within a deadline. Prof Velu helped us form a collaborative team by increasing our cohesiveness. He did this by introducing an ice breaking gaming sessions where we started interacting within the team. Within a short span of time, we were enjoying each other’s company. We then started completing our task with the limited resources that were given. We learnt about resource optimization too during the session. At the last, we were to evaluate each other’s performance and submit the same to the professor.
The course was enlightening and the learning would come handy in future for sure.
