Why even the most powerful team falls apart..!!

What exactly is a team?

• Is it only a group of skillful people working together? No
• Is it herd of people who are expected to say yes to everything? No
• Is it a one man show (read manager)? No

So what exactly is a team and who keeps it bonded together ?
If you go by books and management principals, it’s always a manager who binds the team together and ensures that everyone is working towards the larger organization’s goal.
But in reality, it’s mostly the inverse. The teams are driven towards more of a personal goal. Although as per “The Manager” that might be his correct understanding of the organizational goal.
Let’s have a look on few possible reasons which create this disconnect in real life

 1.     Showcasing unnecessary stress and urgency
When every-time things are portrayed as urgent and team is pushed to finish it as soon as possible. What happens eventually that team members stop giving importance to even urgent things.

 2.     Lack of transparency
I do understand that information should be shared with only intended recipients but a practice of hiding all the information just to use it at later stage never helps. It’s always good to keep your team members informed about reality of the project/ assignment. No one likes surprises, that too always.

3.     Judging people only basis own experience
It’s good to access people basis personal experience but it’s dangerous to be judgmental basis only personal experience. No one in this world is having all the experience in life. A truth, the way it’s interpreted is, My Truth Vs Your Truth Vs The Truth. Its very dangerous for any team if the manager is accessing people only basis his knowledge and consistently ignoring inputs from others or taking only selective feedback. Team members in this case lose their motivation and will never deliver to their capacity

4.     Nano-Management Expert
Gone are the days of Micro-Management, now a days managers go one step ahead and they even want to review mails which are being sent, doing multiple iterations of a simple document or spending time in revising the presentations for n number of times. When one is kept under the lens all the time, the person tends to finish the job just for the sake of finishing it because he/she knows that this will be reviewed again and again and again. This kills all the talent and suppresses creativity.

5.     Not giving personal space
Last but not least, people who expect the team to be there at office all the time, expect them to spare all the personal time for office, eventually force the team for the truancy. Everyone is a mature individual and knows how to take the responsibilities and finish it as per the agreed commitment. But everyone needs personal space too. What seems as a waste of time to a manager can be the person’s choice of de-stressing (I have heard sarcastic comments on my hobby of writing blogs in my career). This should be respected and given space.



If simple things like above are managed tactfully, the team can do wonders..!!

Innovation..!!

What's an innovation ?

• Inventing something new
• reinventing something in present scenario
• revamping existing processes by removing bottlenecks, or
• doing something which gives positive new solutions

In my view, anything which improvises existing process and procedures, refining it, adding something new (irrespective of it's being big or small) which enhances the output or anything which results in customer delight should qualify as innovation. It doesn't have to be next big thing, irrespective of its size and aura, what should matter most is the customer delight and business excellence.

It doesn't needs fancy jargon, complicated explanation or fancy titles. One should target excellence with simplicity to achieve it. Targeting to enhance basic building blocks will also serve the purpose.

Simply, keep innovating and keep contributing..!!

What is the key factor in customer satisfaction?

• I have heard so many times during my career "The testing was not done properly" or "The delivery guy doesn't have proper business knowledge" or "Delivery was not done on time". People rarely realize that following steps ensure that any delivery for customer (internal or external) is done "On Time In Full"

  • Requirement gathering- Ask as many questions as possible while collecting information at this stage. Don't get dishearten by people who say that you are asking questions because you don't understand business. In fact you are asking because you are having hawk's view of the entire situation, which in most of the case is better than any specific user community. Capturing more and more details will help in preventing re-development of output and hence sticking to timelines
  • Feasibility Study - Don't get surprised if user asks for a 8000 CC car while offering to pay for a 600 CC engine and expecting it to get delivered as on yesterday. Do a stock check before you commit on what can be delivered in your current scope of delivery 
  • Modular development - No one will ask it specifically but will expect every part of your delivery to be independent so that it can accommodate last minute "Eureka" moment inventions and discoveries
  • User based testing-  Ensure that the user who has given the requirement, tests it to the best of his capability. You might have to scrap entire output just because it was not tested by the user
  • Go-live- Always be ready to mitigate any mishap during this stage (trust me Murphy's law is not a myth). Start with a small user base in controlled environment so that anything going not as per expectation can be corrected without any major impact to business.

  You will always come across people who would know everything and are always ready with suggestions. My stake would be to take as much as help and input possible in order to deliver best output.
  And I strongly believe that support cost will be minimal if above points are handled properly.