Teamwork and Team Building

COAS citation, Governor’s citation and awards to officers and men of the Battalion after exhibiting remarkable performance in an operational area are a result of highly motivated team. Yes, indeed Armed Forces have this distinction of grooming high performance teams. No one does it better.

My own experiences through the training years at RIMC, NDA, IMA and later in the Battalion bear the testimony to this fact. We excelled at NDA winning many competitions by the dint of having an energetic team. If I look at my own tenure as CO in Siachen Glacier we made a mark in that hostile weather conditions and adverse operational situations. It was possible by virtue of a well-knit and deeply dedicated team. High team performance was found manifest in consistent high school ranking of Radiant International School in Patna which I headed for six years.

Let us analyse some of the factors which contributed to success and achievements in instances given above.

• Alignment of purpose and shared goal
• Interactive communication
• Culture of trust and empathy
• Competence and commitment
• Collaboration through integrated systems
• Motivation through investment in human capital
• Complementing each other’s effort
• Participative leadership
• Effective feed forwards

Team, teamwork, team building and team management gets discussed on a daily basis and there are copious literature on the subject. There are teams (organisations) that feature in the list of Top 50, 100, 500 and so on. We also have corporates who strive to be part of Top 10 best workplaces to work at. There are also these Fortune 500 companies. In education sector we have myriad kinds of rankings for schools, colleges, universities and so on. Likewise different sectors work diligently to get their organisations to bond into great team of high performance, productivity, visibility and revenue.

I want to highlight three organisations/entities considering the above aspect which succeeded in overcoming the challenges and showcasing their acumen as high performing, deeply focused and well-knit teams.

1. Apollo 11 Moon Landing- This successful landing on the moon was a result of a superlative team effort of individuals and departments which called for integrating all kinds of systems, human resource, technology and logistics. The challenge of a scientific breakthrough against a tight timeline was achieved by ensuring deep commitment, collaboration, decision making, risk-owning employees and alignment to a complex shared goal.
2. ‘Project Aristotle’ by Google- The challenge undertaken was to explore the attribute of an organisation which separates the best from others discounting individual talent and capabilities. This assiduously conducted research and project found that ‘Psychological Safety’ is one differentiating character of an organisation’s culture that stands at the top. Places where people can trust each other and have unquestionable faith thrive and ascend the trajectory of high performance.

• “Miracle of the Hudson”- US Airlines Flight 1549 managed a miracle landing on the Hudson River in 2009 when the Aircraft had a bird hit and lost engine power. The pilot Captain Chesley Sullenberger, First Officer Jeff Skiles, the crew inside the aircraft and members of ATC formed a formidable team within those 200 seconds high stress challenging task. All 155 passengers survived the master-class landing under most risky conditions because of certitude in calmness, deftness, intrepid leadership and role execution.  

Team Building and Team Management is a continuous process and needs good leadership and a great cohesive unit. There are many team building laws (including 17 Laws enunciated by John Maxwell in his famous book), models, methods, activities, processes, benefits and so on. The need of the hour is to learn from own experience, environment, invest in people and implement best practices suitable for own organisation as per the vision and strive to make a mark for self and others. There is no denial that high performing teams catapult organisations.

Together we achieve more!