In the next organization I was fortunate to have a small but a good team and I added a few more based on our projected plans. As we slowly built up systems, people got involved and worked together to achieve success. Having tasted success, they wanted to do more and joined hands to scale greater heights. I could then sense the synergy in the group and general positivity which was wonderful.

It is said that there is no better way to learn than by experience. Experience showed me the magic of team dynamics and the importance of having the right people together. It is pertinent to quote Jim Collins from his book “Good to Great’. He says: “First get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figure out where to drive it.” He lays emphasis on the having the right people with you even before you begin your journey. Wrong people in the group may destroy teamwork, damage morale, and spread inefficiency and discontent.

Thumbs up to team work

Now let us look at the advantage that comes with having the right people in your team.

(a) Great teamwork: People feel comfortable working with each other and create a supportive environment. There is synergy in the group and the output often exceeds the targets set. You have self-managed and self-motivated people who need no supervision.

(b) High morale: The positive work environment ups the morale of the team and people feel excited and enthusiasm is palpable. People are self-driven and do not look for incentives.

(c) Quality of work and delivery: People put their hearts into the work and the result is high quality of work and timely execution. Committed individuals and the team practice self-supervision and ensure quality delivery.

(d) Better image of the function: Such enthusiasm is infectious and slowly rubs off on people they come in contact with. People from other functions love to engage with them and the image of the IT department is thus enhanced.

(e) Better connect with the management: When projects are rolled out successfully and the user departments express satisfaction, the message gets carried on to the management. I was in one such situation and the result was that all the further proposals by me got approved quickly and without much questioning (and that made other people envious!?)

(f) Delivery on time: We know most IT projects face hurdles and get delayed. However when right people work in a team, each person pulls his weight and delivers projects on time as the honor of the team is at stake.

(g) Personal bonding: People learn to respect one another and matters like seniority and hierarchy recede to the background. Informal get-togethers and social bonding are not uncommon.

How to build a team

Building the right team is a challenge and to be honest I have been able to build up such a team in only four of the seven organizations I have worked with. Getting the right people on the bus and offloading the wrong ones is easier said than done. Let me deal with this subject in my next article.

I was often amused and pretended sympathizing with them asking a few innocent questions to let them open up and tell me something more about it. What they said revealed quite a lot about their psyche and their level of understanding of the role they had taken up. These people were either CIOs of medium-sized organizations or IT managers from some larger organizations and they met me for a position in my company and in other cases came to seek my advice on their career paths.

Perceived stagnation

What I found was that, in many cases, the perception of candidates was they had reached the limit of what could be done and there was nothing further that IT could do. Strange as it seemed, these candidates, however, seemed convinced of the situation. Let me narrate an instance of my encounter with a candidate who approached me for a job as manager. After the initial exchange of information about his current role and the my requirement, the conversation proceeded thus:

Me: Good to know that you successfully implemented ERP in your organization. Why then would you like to leave this position?

Candidate: Sir, once ERP is implemented there is not much else to do. Plus I have already given reports that users wanted.

Me: OK. Are users making use of the reports and have they derived benefit by reducing inventory, outstanding etc.?

Candidate: They take out reports regularly and I would expect them to put that to use.

Me: Did you explore the possibility of making process improvement in various areas and of reducing the turnaround time of different processes?

Candidate: That is a business call sir. I don’t want to interfere in their area.

Me: May be BI can help in analyzing business performance.

Candidate: I know but other managers don’t listen. Plus, it is difficult to train them.

Me: What about connecting other stakeholders like suppliers and dealers over Internet?

Candidate: That will take a long time.

You may have guessed it right, I rejected this candidate.

Those who came out of this syndrome

A young CIO once approached me requesting me to mentor him on his career path. Besides seeking a direction for his career, his immediate requirement was to change his present job for something better. I tried to understand his current role and factors that limited his progress. His answers were somewhat similar to what is mentioned above, but in this case he was searching for answers.

I talked to him about various possibilities including process re-engineering, BI, content/ document management, web-based processes merging into ERP, introducing mobility, etc. He then left with a few ideas in mind and worked in the same organization for the next two years bringing about changes and getting management’s attention.

He met me again and said he wants a change now, not because he was stagnating but because the organization had limited growth plans and therefore he wanted to use his new-found learning and confidence in another organization that is looking for improvement.

Learning

I thought that was an amazing turnaround displayed by this young man. He simply demonstrated that he could grab initiative and act when others slept. Problems are only in the mind and once you act things start things start falling in place. There is no point in running away from any situation as you may encounter the same problem in the next outing. Unless we use our faculties to improve the situation around us, we may fall short of our self-esteem.

Process of decision making

Let us look into what is involved in decision making. Decision is all about taking a stand on a particular issue and choosing ‘to do’ or ‘not to do’ a certain thing. At other times, it may have to do with a set of choices and for us to select one from them to go on with. In doing so we consider the best fit solution and also mull the consequences of selecting any of the other choices. But a selection we have to make, sooner than later, and if we don’t someone else will walk away with the cake leaving us high and dry.

Modes of decision making

There are various ways of taking decisions. The best way in many a cases is one which is based on facts and data. We collect all details and classify them into those which are in favor or against a particular choice. These work very well in cases where facts and figures are clearly available and more the data you have, the better the judgment would be.

There are cases, however, where data may not be available and therefore we may have to make choices on various other factors such as our principles, ethics, and so on. We sometimes take a particular step based on our intuition or based on our strong likes/ dislikes even though it may not sound logical. It is, therefore, important for us to understand where we are coming from, when taking decisions.

Elements of good decision making

Quality of our decisions rests a lot in the way we arrive at our conclusions. Let us look at a few factors that are ingredients of good decisions.

Well considered: When we study a certain issue with all seriousness and consider various aspects that speak in favor or otherwise and we apply our judgment based on the facts we have with us. It is not a choice made casually but one with a sense of responsibility.

Balanced and fair: We act as a judge and try to deliver a judgment which is fair and not biased either way. Here, we are true to ourselves and retain our sense of balance considering the right or wrong in making our choice.

Free from emotion: Decisions made with a level head where the heart doesn’t rule the head (except for cases involving human issues). Emotions often mar our judgment and we ignore logic and facts when arriving at a decision.

Ethical: It is important that we do things in a manner that is right and acceptable. So when exercising our choices, we keep ethics and good conduct as a part of our decision making process. We should connect to ourselves and not do anything that hurts our conscience or values we cherish.

Consider both from long term and short term: Depending on the situation and need, we need to take decisions based on the needs that are immediate or sacrifice the short terms needs in favor of long term goals.

We may sometimes make mistakes when taking decisions and on hindsight blame ourselves for being inadequate or incompetent. This may not be the right thing to do. Many years ago I was in a state of remorse after facing consequence of a decision that went wrong. It was my superior then who drew me aside and gave me valuable advice. He explained to me that we all take decisions that we think are right in the circumstances and which are based on the understanding that we have at those points of time.

So we should not wrong ourselves but take a lesson from the error and move on. This is where people often lose heart, shed their boldness and then start withdrawing from decision making or pass it on to the others. They vacate the center stage. We surely can do better and hold our head above water.

Related post: The importance of decision making