What drives a team best-2

A team which performs well consistently has two ingredients which are absolutely critical - love and respect for each other. Respect is the highest quality and most essential for success on a long term. However love and respect does not come easily. It is rare to find a team where every team member is bound to every other by these twin bonds. There may be few members who share mutual affections, but others may not. In a large and complex team, esp. one which is spread over diverse locations rather than collocated, the lack of these ingredients are palpable. This is because over longer distances and among many members, it is very difficult to develop trust, let alone respect and love.

However in smaller teams which are collocated, it is easier to develop respect and trust and through social interactions some bonds of love as well. It is to be noted that the love and respect shared by even most intimate friends are not selfless, but there are some selfish interests. So shared goal forms the backbone of every interaction. However there is a hierarchy of relationship maturity which can be represented in three levels.

The first level of maturity is the one where team members are working together under some compulsion. There is not much or minimum fellow feeling and trust is limited. This happens typically if the members are not known to each other, coming together for the first time, or are geographically spread, without having opportunity to know each other. Here respect is rudimentary and love is non existent. Team members work together because they have to complete a task and are not obliged towards each other. This team is characterized by frictions, but they also resolve them over a period of time. There is little or no interaction beyond work.

At the second level of maturity is the one where team members are working together with a shared goal or purpose. This is the highest level for the so called management experts where teams are driven, motivated and there is trust among members. They are probably known to each other by working together for a long time. They may or may not be collocated. They know each other well to trust each other on a professional basis. However there is no personal relationship or love. Respect threshold is low and sustains as long as there is no conflict of interest.

At the highest level of maturity is the relationship based on love, respect and harmony where team members know and understand each other perfectly. They care for each other, would be ready to do anything for their team mates and would not hesitate to sacrifice selfish gains for their comrades. This type of bond is forged when there is an ideal, a greater common understanding untainted by narrow selfish gains or motives. This state is very difficult to reach and even more difficult to sustain. A classic example would be the direct monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna during the early days of the Baranagar monastery. They would live together for one burning ideal - that of realization of God at all costs, and they were all threaded by that bond of love, being led by one of the greatest and grandest person who was that ideal personified. Army men try to reach this level during great battles, where often it is found that soldiers are ready to sacrifice themselves for their comrades and are driven by a larger than selfish motive.

Even this level can be transcended. At the highest level, one is united with the world because one realizes the grand and supreme unity, the unity which pervades all beings. Here one is not bound by a narrow definition of team, but the very core ideal becomes that of universal brotherhood. Sri Ramakrishna had told Keshab Chandra Sen when the latter had asked him about the state of the knowledge when one realizes the unity. Sri Ramakrishna dissuaded him saying that, "Keshab, if I say anything more, you'll not have your team of followers." Keshab could not renounce his followers and therefore did not pursue the matter further. So this is the state where one cannot be limited to any sect or team or group but expands infinitely to be united with the infinite itself.