Virtuoso-Mediocre

As I went through the reading on Virtuoso Teams, I was flushed with my own memories. I was part of a "virtuoso team" in my college. I could relate to the various dynamics mentioned in the reading, and realized that things were not so much layered as the reading says.

I thought, and still think of myself, as an individual with limited talents but with a lot of positive energy. Also primarily, the team was of friends who could criticize each other and still bond. The members of the team were 'honest' with each other in all respects, be it their ideas, their likes, dislikes or the way of working.

This is the most important thing in forming a team, that could achieve great results. As I even said in the class, the concept of classifying teams as virtuoso or mediocre is something i do not agree to. The classification is based on the composition of the team, but in essence it is classified on the results it produces. The example of "West side story" would not have been given had it not become a huge success.

The example of the football club Real Madrid is not given though it has the biggest stars in the world. A virtuoso team by all standards except one, that of achieving results. It would be said, that assembling the best in the business does not make for a great team. At the same time, Indian cricket team won the world cup when it had a majority of non star players. A mediocre team that achieved supreme success. And these are not exceptions proving the theory right, there are a lot of such examples which could in fact challenge the theory.
In the video of Ideo, a vital part of their process is to honestly evaluate the ideas. And give every idea an honest chance to flower.

Overall, I feel, that if team members of any team are brutally honest with each other and passionately caring, then a team of individuals having mediocre skills can achieve results much beyond what they could achieve in a traditional setting of compliance. Say no to compliance and Yes to rebel.

ENFP

The corridor of choices session was something new. We did not know what to expect, and the movement of the class form one side to the other was a lot of fun. As ma'am said, I wrote down my choices in a sentence form, as far as I could.

"Freedom breeds creativity which needs an environment of variety & adventure. But one should not be just lost in his own world and needs to be professional at what he does. Without knowing or trying to know the truth, I cannot be free, creative or professional."

My overall personality came out to be ENFP, the inspirer. I wondered how simple questions can detect your personality so truly. Basically, a very humbling experience and understood, that you can pretend but cannot hide yourself.

Analysis paralysis

I also have a tendency of over analysis specially in the subjects I like. Economics does that to me and that leads to improper time management on my side. I think, our LT also bears with me all this one time or the other. In the same subject, we had to make a short presentation without a PPT. This was an instruction given just three hours before the presentation. I feel I have good communication skills and so I took on the challenge with one of my team mates. We decided to use the chalk board instead. I guess that worked in our favor as none of the teams used it. Moreover, we had some reference data on the board, during the Q&A sessions.

High on adrenaline

I am a very impulsive person, which I believe is more of a weakness for a person looking to become a successful manager. I can cite two instances.

One was with our Professor with whom i had an argument about why should we get printed hand outs and why not soft copies. When laptops are allowed, giving hand outs makes no sense and it shows our lack of concern. It again reflected my high score in Social Consciousness but the behavior was impulsive than planned. I thought had offended the Professor, until a small chat proved that he was more than wiling to help me if I could take this issue forward as a project. Around the same time, Ms. Crissie, who is an alum of AIM came in with her idea of making an AIM-Green Team. My collaborative skills have put me in good stead as we have a team of almost 20 people willing to work. Also, I individually went ahead and met the AIM-EMS head. He said, this will be 'historic' if staff and students would work together on such an issue.

Instance two is when I had a very loud argument with my LT member. He had a tendency of being loud in the discussions and was a bad listener. I had told that to him earlier. In one of the discussions I lost it, and started shouting at him and he also shouted at me. We went on for 5min, which wasn't in the best of spirits. Later, we shook hands obviously. Both of us knew that it was adrenaline rather than any dislike. I also realized, that a fight can make pals for you which sweet talk can never do.

Baby boomers session..a disconnect, reconnected

During our first exercise of role play, Baby boomers, baby bust and all, I rather kept quite during most class interactions. The reason was that I nothing new to offer and most of the initial sessions, everyone seemed to be in a hurry to make an impression on the professor and get air time. I am being judgmental here, which i recognize as one of my weaknesses. But I also realize that I cannot completely do away with it. Moreover, I realize that it helps me position myself in the beginning and slowly I can change my position depending on my experiences.

Moving on, I felt that we should not have had the exercise the way it was done. We as Indians do not connect much to the world war. Well, it was a historical event but we were still trying to find our feet, fighting for our freedom. I discussed this with my classmates and formed a parallel for myself for a better connect

Depression generation-- Pre independence

Baby Boom--Post independence, Indo pak war, Indo China war

Baby bust, baby boomlet-- I did not differentiate much in the two. The characteristics mentioned for baby bust like video games, computers etc were something we were exposed to only when our generation had been almost ten years old. There was hardly anything to set us apart.

I thought that the concept was very American and could have been customized for the Asian audience.

It begins..

It has been a learning curve at AIM where I have discovered my strengths and weaknesses. I had done those exercises earlier but here I could build my perspective towards these strengths and weaknesses.

The opportunities thrown up by AIM are immense. Specially classmates, who are more open to ideas. it is hard to find such a group outside educational setting, and AIM pedagogy creates the right ecosystem for the same. In the same breath they would openly point out weaknesses and not let a person brag about his strengths.

The HBO and MC classes were the ones I really looked forward to. One, they are qualitative subjects, and two, I could really let my thought s flow unrestrained. My AIM-EI score tells me that I am high on Emotional Literacy. For me, it was just a conformation of what I already knew. I have a family which is sensitive and closely knit. This has helped me stay in touch with my feelings. Have been brought up reading books like Jonathan Livingston Seagull, my first book ever and till date remains one of my favorite books. It was more of a self discovery, which continued as I came into AIM.