A comment or two will be greeted with warm hands.

01 June 2008

Teaming up with genius and idiots

Teamwork is the ability to work as a group toward a common vision, even if that vision becomes extremely blurry
---- Anonymous.
Teamwork is great fun when you are working with people who are in the same level as you. You contribute an idea, they contribute an idea and everyone is happy.

It gets a bit problematic when there is a huge gap within the group. Lets just say everyone contributes to the best of their ability. There is a freaking good one, and a freaking lousy one. The freaking good contributes 100 ideas while the freaking lousy contributes -10 ideas. (Negative because he took those ideas from the freaking good guy and claimed it as his own.)

Sometimes when a person contributes too much, I get this feeling like I'm overloaded with information. And when a person does not contribute anything, I feel like I'm not getting any help (particularly damaging if I got stuck at some point and desperately need some ideas.)

Being in a group like that, I can't help it but to think that I'm useless in front of the freaking good and feeling that the freaking bad should contribute more.

I guess it sucks being a leader in that group. The leader has to limit the the freaking good and help out the freaking lousy by secretly giving out ideas to the freaking lousy allowing him to take the credit so that everyone in the team are treated equally as contributors. [Just like how tax system sucks out more percentage from the rich and less from the poor]

Have you encounter this kind of situation before?

Which comes to my question:
Assuming that you are the leader, are you willing to give out ideas to the lousy guy, allowing him to take credit for it in order to maintain the group?


[Top Comment by ColourfulWorld]
I would have to disagree with you. Each and everyone is unique and they contribute differently in a dynamic group. In the end it all comes down to the leader, whether he / she is capable of turning the team members on besides serving as a gateway for information processing and sharing.
Before a meeting starts, it is very important that everyone understand clearly the goals and objectives which will be covered throughout the meeting to prevent frequent build up of confusion during the session. Therefore the leader must be able to provide guidance all the time so that team members will not be led astray accidentally.
A good leader must be able to spot weakness and strength of each team member, so that he / she knows how to delegate proper tasks to proper entity.
By the way, if you know the proper and effective process of brainstorming, conditions that you mentioned would be significantly avoided. Maybe you should introduce some common brainstorming such as the SWOT & TOWS analysis, thinking hats etc.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would have to disagree with you. Each and everyone is unique and they contribute differently in a dynamic group. In the end it all comes down to the leader, whether he / she is capable of turning the team members on besides serving as a gateway for information processing and sharing.

Before a meeting starts, it is very important that everyone understand clearly the goals and objectives which will be covered throughout the meeting to prevent frequent build up of confusion during the session. Therefore the leader must be able to provide guidance all the time so that team members will not be led astray accidentally.

A good leader must be able to spot weakness and strength of each team member, so that he / she knows how to delegate proper tasks to proper entity.

By the way, if you know the proper and effective process of brainstorming, conditions that you mentioned would be significantly avoided. Maybe you should introduce some common brainstorming such as the SWOT & TOWS analysis, thinking hats etc.

Just sharing my idea, hope I won't annoy you. =)

Linora 'Aronil' Low said...

Having a hard time Kif? Don't take it so hard, the whole point of this thing is for it to be fun. Besides, it's not easy for everyone to meet with different timezones like yours and also with the busy schedules.

It gets a bit in the way, when we start thinking that someone has stolen an idea which is of course yours. But then if one thinks that way, I don't think the group will go very far. So chill man :) and we'll do what we can with it. aight?

chics said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chee Ching said...

It has happened to me in the previous 2 semesters, there's this fella who nobody wants and our group have to always include him in.

Sigh.

I hope next semester I do not need to group with him again, if not there'll be -29 ideas. D:

Katherine said...

A good leader won't think about taking credit. :)

amei79 said...

Hmm, for sure i would be the "freaking lousy one". I dont like teamwork, i prefer do thing individually, even though i knew that this is very very very bad practice!

I wonder if im too selfish or too shy to voice out my idea, as most time i keep silent even I have lots of idea, perhaps im not confident enough.

Anonymous said...

Why does this whole scenario sounds so damn familiar?

Oh ya, it happens in workplace! Bummer!

BOSSCORNER said...

One word. Teamwork.

Teamwork is very important in any most condition.

Not just in works.. but others like playing games.

all i can say.. without teamwork.. you cant produce any good output.

like u can't clap with single hand but both ...

Solo may not as good as you think .

C said...

being a leader, is never easy, let alone team members.

many might think being team members are the safest because whatever happens, the blame will be pushed to the leader which isn't true. because at the end of the day, the outcome of the work is contributed from the team.

i've learnt this in my previous lesson that, One for All, All for One, and on top with that respect is really important in a team.

be it dumb or not, it doesn't matter at all because i believe that if everyone is willing to do their part, and they try their best, hey, you tried your best too, you'll be surprised with the outcome.

i do not support discrimination about intelligence level or race among team mates however, if they're plain lazy, then something must be done because we all know that there's a deadline we have to catch up with.

i do understand if everyone has their own weaknesses...but LAZINESS? that's just an excuse. v_v

all in all,

good teamwork = happy clients = satisfactory outcome = happy boss = happy company = pay raise = happy team

Lynn said...

HEY!
I really like the cartoon. It's like so creative and true at the same time =)

3POINT8 said...

[ColourfulWorld]
Thanks for the idea! Its idea like this excites me! It doesn't even annoy me one bit at all.
Thanks for your sharing. I've made posted this up in this post. I think this is a very good argument!

[Aronil]
Oh, i wasn't referring to the group i'm working with now. I'm trying to provoke others to see if they any of them are experiencing this kind of situation

[chics]
erm...ok

[chingy]
Ahaha. -29 ideas!
I contribute 1 idea k?
then at least u have -28

3POINT8 said...

[宝茹]
what about giving out credit then? Will a good leader do that?

[amei79]
I suppose self-esteem could be the problem. I'm also experiencing this kind of problem. Sometimes I do not present an idea until i know its 100% fool-proof. (which is impossible for most cases)

[Cmate]
Ahahaha.... Workplace. Common problem
:P

[BossCorner]
but er....I can slam my hand to something (eg: a table or someone's face) That way I get to clap!
ahahahaha

3POINT8 said...

[Yeong]
Hey! thats discrimination against laziness!
Ahahahaha :P

[Lynn]
Me too! me too! I love the cartoon a lot!

BOSSCORNER said...

Quote:but er....I can slam my hand to something (eg: a table or someone's face) That way I get to clap!
ahahahaha

erm... =.=" you win already lo~
i call that.. slap ~

3POINT8 said...

ahaahha...
clap and slap work the same rite? they end with *lap.
LOL

But its true what you said. Teamwork is very important in any most condition, and Solo may not as good as you think .

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the compliment, just hope to contribute to the discussion. =p

Anyway, there is an entire field out there studying human behaviour at workplace. If you are hardworking enough, go look out for articles about organizational behaviour (OB).

Actually there are many tools one can employ to determine to qualities of his / her team mates. One that I frequently use is www.mypersonality.info. There are 2 types of tests provided, one is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test while the other is Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence (MI) test. A good combined analysis of both results will provide you a sound idea of who he / she is, and what he / she will be under certain circumstances. Cool huh? Well, we have to thank those who work hard for many many years in the field of human psychology.

Personally I have led and being led many times before. A good leader must also be a good follower. Therefore one can contribute ideas and methodologies from a leader's point of view but do voice out them from a follower's point of view, especially when you are not leading the team. Conflicts occur when those who have led for so many time before forget their follower role in the new team, thus causing unwanted distress to the new leader, especially someone who has less leading and coordinating experiences than the "veteran".

Linora 'Aronil' Low said...

oooohok.. hehe sorry my bad.. just had very good timing :P hard to actually claim intellectual property.

TheJessicat said...

lol! the cartoon rlly cracked me up!! hahaha.. not only at one glance, i stared at it closer one picture at a time n laughed again.


so silly but so true