Instantaneous thought

Consider the following scenario: A team is presented with a spade.

Someone influential in the team comes up with the proposition that the presented object is a rake. The ideal team player is supposed to accept that proposition as perfectly sound. He should actually hear out the person for quite some length of time, and take notes on that. Even though he knows perfectly well that it is a spade, he is supposed to keep his views to himself. Only then can the discussion go on, and people feel that they have got the freedom of giving their opinion.

Then the ideal team player gets the chance to speak. At first, he is supposed to speak about the positive aspects of the spade being called a rake so that proponents of that idea feel that they are on the right track and are making a contribution to the team. Then probably he can put forward a few points that suggest that the so called "rake" might not be a rake. At every point of time, he is supposed to make sure that the whole team is with him. After lengthy discussion on each of the points, the proponents of the rake theory slowly realize that their rake theory has some flaws, and the presented object might not be a rake. Note that they still havent accepted that it is a spade.

Now the team player has to wait for someone to come up with the idea that the object might be a spade. Only then can he put forward point s supporting the FACT and then convince the team.

The end result is that the whole team has accepted the fact that the object is a spade after all. But the exercise has taken hours of productive meeting time, and you, who knows well that it was a spade, feels like having wasted a lifetime.

But thats the way teams work. It is not in the team spirit to call a spade a spade at the very first instant. The next level of maturity comes when you give up your thought of the spade being a spade, and you evolve with the team.

I am learning to be a team player.