Imagine graphic representation of Team Work. The likely graphic would have a group collectively working on some common task with one Prominent Leader directing the goal efforts towards the common goal. The others will be covered in a silhoutte.
Presumption : All tasks in the team are equal. Everyone is skilled, mature & responsible equally. Each one fulfills an equal task !!This is a fallacious imagery. All tasks are not equal nor are they expected to be equal except in tug-o-wars !!!
Team work is not about distributing the cake into equal slices ! All members are not suitably skilled nor equally responsibly. The level of enabling Engagement is not necessary the same. Critically, albeit the team may be successful, the contributions of members of the team are not necessarily equal !
Overstressed Team work undermines Individual efforts. Individual excellence is underplayed. Collective result giving efforts are identified as the source of the success.
The big bad news is it provides safe heavens for the under performers to hide under success of the collectivity. Inequal efforts of the Superstars - the movers and shakers within, is encouraged for results but suppressed for recognition and rewards!
In the long run, this 'social model' becomes an unsustainable model. Collaboration is good . So is pulling with full efforts for the collective group purpose. However, the clear set-back of this model is that it not only makes the non-performers complacent in the long run but it further demotivates the performers due to absence of recognition and rewards. It motivates no body but demotivates the performers. The movers and shakers are shaken up and they exit soon enough. The team then becomes a collective of mediocrity and triggers its down fall.
Teamwork is a different from the fallacious imagery people have.
Stoicism celebrates the role of the individual in collective team successes thru PAPS - 'Purpose Anchored Performance Successes'.
Infact this celebration and recognition is critically showcased in the group such that it calls out the high performers as the real 'celebrities' in the system and their performances is used for aspirational caliberation to influence others to benchmark performances and steive to perform by the same standards.
Effective team work does not suppress the performing hero. Infact it celebrates. This enables the team collectively to surpass its previous roles and collaborate to surpass the group hall-marks.
Fallacy lies in the faulty mind model portrayed by a illusory imagery treating everyone who participated as equal performers.
Next time when you speak to your child or your team members about collaborative team work , please change the graphic model in your mind. Your team should be encouraged to give superior performances and thereafter to collaboratively influence the other under-performers to enhance their yield and contributions to the collectively.
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