‘Don’t worry. We are a team, trust me’ said Yi, a young Chinese lady motor biker and lawyer by profession who couldn’t speak much English. She was trying to assure an irritated me over the phone with here limited pool of English words, as I had lost the way within the first 2 hours on Day 1 of my first motorbike tour in China. Yes, that’s how the tour started for us. A tour which threw so many challenges tested our grit and determination and eventually taught so much about importance of Trust in a team, which is so much more that what we believe it to be.
The tour required all of us to complete 1400 kms, across 4 provinces in 5 days with designated halts to stay overnight. That sounds so much like our annual targets – xx revenue, over 4 quarters with designated milestones to review the progress. We were a team of 4 bikers and a team leader. A lawyer, an entrepreneur, a professional photographer, and a media professional. We didn’t have much in common between us by any stretch of imagination. To top it none of the others in the group spoke English. We all started on this tour to achieve a personal goal without knowing much about each other. For me it was very simple – follow each other, enjoy the scenic spots, and wind up every evening, rest and start again next morning, quite straightforward. Or was it?
Fresh out of the experience of this motorbike tour, I was all excited to write about the analogies that I could draw with work on teamwork but watching the highest watched series worldwide at present – Squid Games happened before that. A complete antithesis of teamwork. While the series may be an exaggeration when compared to real life, we see and experience the emotions of opportunism, seclusion, betrayal, me before anyone else, survival of the fittest shown in the series so often around us. For the people who have seen the series, we all have reacted and behaved like the character Sang-Woo under different circumstances. A person who wanted to believe he is superior to others but would look for support and cover during pressure situations. The one who thought woman, older men and physically weak are all weak links in a team, eventually ended up himself being the weakest link for one big reason –the lack of Trust. I saw the series after the motorbike tour and retrospectively realized I was probably started with shades of Sang-Woo in our team. Read on to know more, this may help to improve your trust quotient with your team and colleagues at work and can be applied to life too.
Trust in teamwork for me comprises of the following – T-Talk, R-Relate, U-Unite, S-Share, T-Target in that precise order. I saw the unveiling of these pillars of Trust exactly in that order during the trip. The order is essential, as you won’t be able to relate unless you talk and communicate or unite unless you relate. Sharing of responsibilities post uniting helps the team understand and acknowledge each other’s roles and finally targeting in unison after sharing make it most effective. Don’t we often start in the reverse order? Target the goal, share it, try to unite in case of challenges, if it still doesn’t work try to relate to understand concerns or when a team member wants to quit and trust me talking at that time doesn’t help much.
Day 1 – T-Talk
Talk to convey your emotion, intent and challenges upfront, rather than judging without any communication. This is the stepping stone to succeed as a team
How often have you felt quitting your job due to your bosses or colleagues? Felt they have given unfair targets, have left you in crisis without help or are biased to others in the team. These opinions in most cases are made up in an individual’s mind without talking and eventually people decide to quit. Being fair to the other side of the coin, the bosses probably wouldn’t have ill-intentions towards any specific employee but would experience people quitting because they don’t talk enough.
I decided to call quits on the first day within 2 hours of the start of the tour stuck on a highway alone, desperately trying to find help after losing my way in a diversion. I thought how irresponsible of my team leader and members to not have kept track of me following them, while they thought how naïve of me to not have followed them using maps. I hadn’t clarified to them that it was my first trip, and I am not familiar with riding in China. They failed to check if I was connected to them on maps to see the route they are following. I had judged without talking and put a message in the group that I am quitting. Yi immediately messaged, ‘You stay there we’llcome to you’ and later called to say,‘Don’t worry. We are a team, trust me.’ A team who was there to enjoy the trip just like me, took efforts to translate and convey a message in English, a language they are not familiar with. They wasted their time to locate me and then continue the trip. It would have been too harsh of me to have not continued with them after this kind gesture. We were behind schedule by 2 hours that day and reached the destination in dark but at least we got talking.
Day 2 – R-Relate
Be real, be relatable. It doesn’t take away anything but contributes a lot in building trust amongst team members
Putting oneself in others’ shoes is a quote often referred and seldom implemented. We never leave an opportunity to forcefully fit someone else in our shoes. If I must work late every day, my team and colleagues must do it too. Have we ever tried to understand that some people like to start early and wind up early as we all live in our individual universe of challenges and commitments? Or the instances where we know we are wrong but are often in denial owing to ego or fear of feeling belittled, hence passing the blame on others by trying to proveall crisis situations are due to the inability of others in the team. Have we ever gathered the courage to apologize to a colleague or even a subordinate when we realize we are the one who were responsible for an issue?
The second day started with much more confidence on the road, matching the speed with others and not too worried about getting lost with the maps handy. We were in the last leg with some 80 kms to go in the evening when Yi overtook the team leader Tiam. Two of us,myself and Brother Wang, followed her in the order to realize after some time and 40 kms away that we threehad taken the wrong route. To add to the woes, I saw my phone falling off the holder from my bike at a speed of over 100 kms. My mind was numb for a moment as a phone is very essential here in China, especially for an expat to show our health codes and identity proofs and manage e-wallets. We took the next exit and halted our bikes. Yi told me yet again, ‘Don’t worry, we are a team, we will get it for you?’ A frustrated me thought, ‘You must, as it was all your fault to have got us in this wrong route due to which all of this happened’. I had no hopes of getting back my phone, not in working condition for sure. Brother Wang managed to track the location on the maps where we were connected, and Yi called the police to take us to the spot and get my phone from highway. There it was, on the center of the road on the highway, cracked but still glowing. All of this seemed to be like a miracle happening at around 8 pm at night. I instantly hugged my 2 fellow co-bikers and thanked them. 2 people who went completely out of their way to do this for me. The team leaderTiamtoo was waiting at the diversion all this while for us to return and join. At a point where I failed to relate to the plight of Yi to have taken us on a wrong route, Tiam to be waiting for hours at the diversion, they related to mine of losing the phone. I thought to myself she was in no way responsible for my phone falling from the bike, I apologized to each one of them as I was the one who had caused the delay. And all of them had to say only one thing again ‘We are a team’.Milestone 2 achieved at 10 pm that night, but the delay didn’t seem like a problem to anyone of us anymore.
Day 3 – U-Unite
United we stand, otherwise it isn’t ‘we’ anyways
During a crisis for the team or a team member how often have you stood out of your comfort to support? Checked with them if they are taking care of their health, diet and family. When approached by team for help, how often you make yourself available to guide without trying to duck it and suggesting them learn it themselves citing immersive learning, etc.
On the start of Day 3, from a privileged individual that I felt about myself since Day 1, I suddenly started feeling as the weakest link. Technically I have been the key reason for the delay everyday so far. From losing the way on the Day 1, to the phone on the Day 2. But our woes weren’t over yet, we were to face yet another challenge on Day 3. There were restrictions on motorbikes taking the highways in the second province. Officials at the checkpoint were quite stringent about it. So,the destination that wasjust some 45 minutes away at6 pm would take 3 hours if we had to take the non-highway route. I saw four of them trying to convince the officials. Even without knowing the language I joined them in heavy rains as we were a team of five not four. We shared all our credentials and after 45 minutes, we finally got permission to take the highway. This was the sense of being united, we seemed to have traveled a long way since Day 1. We reached at 8 pm yet again experiencing challenges, but today looked so much different. I felt amongst a team of friends for the first time during this trip.
Day 4 – S-Share
Sharing is caring. If you feel it, you will mean it
Have you experienced situations where after having put all the hard work as a team on a project you felt that someone else walked away with the credit for that? While sharing load comes easily to us, sharing acknowledgement or appreciation doesn’t. You can’t stay united for long, without being fair on that front
On Day 4 we were in unison as never before. We had a very clear plan – ride, reach the sight-seeing point and then start to the destination for the day. However, challenges too seemed to be well integrated with our journey. For some reason the last leg was jinxed everyday till now. Yet again challenge for the day came in the form of team leaderTiam’s bike tire going flat on the highway. So, we were stuck again, searching for a repair shop to fix the tire of a BMW 750. We found one after an hour taking the bike in a guarded way to the shop.However, the tire shop owner refused to fix it. He said he was not skilled to handle a BMW bike tire. So, we took some tools from him and tried to remove the tire out ourselves. Suddenly instead of worrying about getting stuck in a remote place with an issue in the dark, I was already helping in taking off the affected tire from the bike.Three of us managed to take it off and the team leader Tiamwent with Brother Wang on his bike with the affected tire and got the puncture fixed. Later we fixed the tire back ourselves, with me lending support to hold the heavy tire with my legs while fixing. It was already 8:30 pm and we were still some over 2 hours away from the destination. Tiampersonally apologized to me for the mishap and delay. Something instinctively came from within me, ‘Don’t worry, we are a team’. That’s when I realized what the feeling of being a team is like. This is what it means to be a team, sharing each other’s problems, offering help/solutions and acknowledging help and support.
Day 5 – T-Target
Coming together as a team is for a purpose, never forget or deviate from the purpose/target
We all experience distractions in the form of daily whirlwinds at work, some colleague insisting for a lunch or coffee catch up and avoidable personal commitments. Taking eyes off a scheduled target can have a domino effect.
It was the final day;we were all excited as it involved taking our motor bikes on ship in the evening to the destination. However, crisis started early morning this time. An old man on an electric bike dashed into Xiaowei’s bike and insisted on calling the Police. The old man seemed drunk, but we didn’t want to deny his request and waited for the police to arrive, however it was taking long.The rest four decided to spend time at a beach just few meters away. In 30 minutes Xiaowei joined us too and we all had some fun time at the beach. It was already 2 pm and the team leader Tiamreminded us to start. Xiaowei suggested that it would get very late by the time we reach the ship terminal, hence we should stay back and start the next day as the place seems warm and interesting. Tiam was very clear of reaching the destination that night as per the schedule. We all complied and started. We reached the ship terminal by 8 pm. Due to some further delay caused due to getting clearance for me, we could board the ship only around 10 pm. We reached our destination at 2 am. 2 hours later than the day when we were supposed to finish. There was one person in the team who was vigilant to ensure we don’t deviate from the target. Did we achieve target? I would let you decide that.
Targets are directional metrics; teams are not built on targets. It’s the journey, companionship, challenges, learnings and most importantly Trust that makes a team. Once you have that in place targets follow.
Eager to know your trust quotient in a team, why not try out a team activity/sport to start with.
This article is authored by Kartik Vishwanathan, Head of Investment Strategy – China at Mindshare.
