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The power of teams and solidarity

One of the greatest challenges in working as a team is striking the balance between team coherence and emergence of individuality of the members. There have been times when I have enjoyed the dynamics of working in my team with each member complementing the skills of each other and bridging all the pitfalls within the team. But there have been other times when I have felt that I have not contributed enough to the project that we are working on and feel like an "imposter" claiming wrongful credit where it doesn't belong. I recently withdrew from a team effort because I felt that my contributions were not enough. My team mates were very upset with the fact that I withdrew. I have been reflecting on whether what I did was right or wrong. Here are some of my thoughts:
  • The main reason I withdrew from the team work was because I felt that I had not contributed "enough". I am wondering if anyone can ever contribute 'enough' to a project in a team. Each person contributes a little, or even a lot. But is that little or lot ever enough? Not only is it never enough, it is not possible to work in a team if each person thinks they must contribute 'enough'. 
  • The thought that 'I' am not contributing to the project probably emerges from my individuality overpowering the team feeling. 
  • I realised that in a team, even 'being there' is sufficient. Our presence creates a sense of solidarity within the team. The solidarity is not something that can be quantified and measured. It gives rise to some strengths that cannot even be described. As people trained to think in terms of targets, outputs and productivity, we fail to realise the importance of these intangible goods that come as being part of the team. 
  • I also felt that I am exploiting the work of the other members. I felt I am being this parasite who claims credit for a team-work where I have not contributed. I failed to understand that the greatest power of a team is that we can adjust to each other's availability and skills and contribute where it is feasible and lean on others where it is not. This is not exploitation. It is complementarity. 
  • Lastly I failed to understand that sometimes, when I am making such statements like, "I withdraw from this work because I don't think I contributed much", in the same stroke I am also implying "All of you who haven't contributed much but claimed credit in all our work, I think you don't deserve the credit." 


The famous Bill Withers song Lean on Me captures the spirit of team work so well. 

"Lean on meWhen you're not strongAnd I'll be your friendI'll help you carry on...
For it won't be longTill I'm gonna need somebody to lean on"

Comments

  1. roopa10 March 2024 at 20:17

    So we'll said Vijay...the intangible and the individual ego parts of your piece resonated , particularly

    ReplyDelete

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