Lack of Teamwork in Indians: Experience of Sam Pitroda

Lack of teamwork and co-operation is one of the most serious problems affecting progress in all areas of India and wherever Indians workworldwide. The key problem in India is always implementation, not lack ofpolicies. We have great policies and ideas about how to do things, butseverely lacking teamwork.When the Japanese came to work in India to develop the Maruti Suzuki car, a joke went around that one Indian was equal to 10 Japanese: Indians were verysmart, capable and dedicated individuals. But 10 Indians were equal to 1Japanese: Indians lacked team spirit and co-operation.What makes matters even worse is our crab mentality , if someone is trying to climb higher and achieve more, the others just drag himdown. The signal that the others send out is, I wouldnt do it; I wouldnt let you do it; and if by change you start succeeding,we will all gang up and make sure that you dont get to do it.The question is: Where does this attitude come from, and how do we recognizeand handle it?

Hierarchical System

Part of the problem is our cultural background. We have had feudal and ahierarchical social system in which whoever is senior supposedly knows best.This was fine in earlier times when knowledge and wisdom were passed onorally; but in modern society, there is no way that one person can knoweverything. Today, you may find that a young computer-trained person has more answers for an accounting problem than a senior accountant has. Untilwe understand how best to leverage this diversity of experience, we will notbe able to create and fully utilize the right kind of teams.

Sam Pitroda: In my younger days in the US, I attended an executiveseminar for Rockwell International, where about 25 senior company executiveshad congregated for a week for strategic discussion. In the evenings, wewould break out into five different groups of five people each. In thosegroup workshops, someone would delegate tasks, saying: You makecoffee; you take notes; you are the chairman; and you clean theboard. The next day, there would be different duties for each groupmember. No one ever said, But I made coffee twice or I cleaned theboard entire day. I thought to myself, if this were happening inIndia, people would be saying, But I'm the senior secretarywhy should I make the coffee and you be the chairman?Hierarchy comes naturally to our minds.
What Derails a Team?
Group work requires a thorough understanding of the strengths and weaknessesof individuals irrespective of their hierarchy. Because of our background,we often dont learn how to exercise and accept leadership- to leadand to follow simultaneously. Some gravitate toward exercisingleadership, and others gravitate toward accepting the lead of others. But intrue teamwork, everyone needs to do both.Being a good team player implies respect for others, tolerance of differentpoints of view and willingness to give. The ability to resolve conflictswithout either egotism or sycophancy is a very important aspect of being ateam player: You have to agree to disagree. I find that people in Indiasomehow tend to focus on achieving total agreement, which is almost alwaysimpossible. So before work begins people want everyone to agree oneverything instead they should say OK. This is what we agree on, solets start working on this. What we dont agree on, we willresolve as we go along. For things to move forward, itsimportant to work on the agreed-upon aspects and not get bogged down in theareas of disagreement. Yet another snake that kills teamwork ispeoples political agendas. You have got to be open, clear andhonest to be a good team player. Most people though, have a hidden agendathey say something but mean the exact opposite. I call itsplit-level consciousness. To say and mean the same thing is avery critical part of a good work ethic.
Criticizing the individual or the idea?
When Sam was working in C-DOT (400 employee size company), If someone hadnot been doing well, Sam used to tell the person directly to his face in ageneral meeting. The employees said that was insulting and they should bepulled aside individually to be told of the inefficiency. But in today'sworld, you cannot afford to do that every time. Besides, Sam figured thatcriticizing someone in a meeting was for the benefit of all present, andeveryone could learn from that individual's mistakes. It was then that Samlearned how Indians do not differentiate between criticizing an idea andcriticizing an individual.So in a group, if you tell someone that his idea is no good, heautomatically takes it personally and assumes that you are criticizing him.No one can have a good idea everyday on every issue. If you disagree with myidea, that does not mean that you have found fault with me as a person.Thus, it is perfectly acceptable for anyone to criticize the boss - but thisconcept is not a part of the Indian System. So from time to time, it isimportant for an organization's Chief Executive to get a report on thepsychological health of the firm. How do people in the team feel? Are theystable? Confident? Secure? Comfortable? These are the key elements of ateam's success. For a boss to be comfortable accepting criticism fromsubordinates, he must feel good about himself. Self-esteem is a keyprerequisite to such a system being successful.
Mental Vs. Physical Workers
Another serious problem facing India is the dichotomy and difference inrespectability between physical and mental workers, which seriously affectsteam performance.Mr. Sam had a driver named Ram, who he thought was one of the best driversin the world. He used to open the door for him whenever he entered or exitedthe car. Right in the first few days Sam told him " Ram bhai, you are notgoing to open the door for me. You can do that If I lose my hands". Ramalmost started crying. He said, " Sir, what are you saying? This is my job!"Sam told him that I didn't want to treat him like a mere driver. He had tobecome a team player. Sam told him that whenever he was not driving, heshould come into office and help out with office work - make copies, filepapers, send faxes, answer phone call or simply read - rather than sit inthe car and wait for me to show up.Diversifying tasks increases workers' self-esteem and motivation and makesthem team players. Now, even If Sam calls him for work in the middle of thenight, he is ready - because Sam respects him for what he does. TeamInteractions unfortunately, when good teams do get created, they almostinvariably fall apart. In our system today it is very difficult to buildteams because nobody wants to be seen playing second fiddle. It is very hardin India to find good losers. Well, you win some and you lose some. If youlose some, you should move on! You don't need to spend all your time andenergy of different cultural backgrounds, religions, ethnicities and castegroups - a fertile ground of diversity in the workplace. We should actuallybe experts in working with diversity. But it can only happen when we get ridof personal, caste and community interests.There could be a 40-year-old CEO with a 55-year-old VP. It has nothing to dowith age; capability and expertise are what counts. But you don't yet seethese attitudes taking hold in India. Managers in the US corporateenvironment who work with Indians - and in fact, with Asians in general -need to recognize that these individuals have a tendency to feel that theyare not getting recognition or are not being respected. It must be realizedthat these individuals have lower self-esteem to begin with and thereforehave to be pampered and encouraged a little more because they need it. Thismakes them feel better and work better. No Substitute for Teamwork. Teamworkis key to corporate and national governance, and to get anything done.The fundamental Issues are respect for others, openness, honesty,communication, willingness to disagree, resolution of conflict, andrecognition that the larger goal of the team as a whole rumps Individual orpersonal agendas.