How to teach an old team new tricks

How  to  teach  an  old  team  new  tricks

There  used  to  be  an iron- cast  mould  for the  Bollywood  hero. Another  for  the  villain.   An  actor  fit  into  either  this or  that.   Not  both.   A  hero,   especially  an  up- and- coming  one, was  not  expected  to  don  a downright  negative  role.   Doing so  was  suicidal.   Amitabh  Bachchan  changed  the  thinking, playing  the  sinister  lover  in

Parwana, 22  years  before  Shah Rukh  Khan  did  in Darr.

Indian  opening  batsmen were  expected  to  “ see  off”   the new  ball  attack.   Caution  was the  watchword.   Kris  Srikkanth showed  a  new  way  of  dealing with  the  new  ball.   He  unsettled the  bowlers  who  handled  it.   In ODIs,   he  showed  how  to  take advantage  of  powerplay  field restrictions.   Even  in  Test  cricket,   he  treated  the  new  ball  with disdain.

The  four- minute  barrier  was unbreachable  for  1,500  metre runners.   Though  Roger  Bannister  himself  underplayed  his record  in  his  memoir,   the  fact remains  that  nobody  before him  ran  1,500m  in  under  four minutes.   Once  he  did  it,   almost every  other  miler  could  do  it. Bannister’s  record  lasted  only  a month  and  a  half.

Such  performers  can  be  defined  variously.   Mould  breakers.   Pace  setters.   Path  breakers. What  they  basically  do  is  break down  barriers  that  exist  in  the mind.

They  attack  notions  of  what is  possible.   They  expand  people’s  imagination.   In  an  organisational  set- up,   will  hiring and  encouraging  path  breakers lead  a  team  out  of  the  rut?   Automatically? Saras  Bhaskar,   counselling psychologist  and  corporate coach,   agrees  path  breakers  can raise  the  team  to  a  new  level  of functioning.   But  they  cannot do  it  alone.   They  have  to  be backed  by  a  system.

She  explains  the  pattern  has to  be  broken  through  a  plan. Path  breakers  have  functions within  this  plan.

They  cannot be the  plan.   Observing  them  do  what  they  are good  at  will  not  automatically change  old  mindsets.   The  need for  change  has  to  be  clearly  articulated.   Managers  and  mentors  have  to  drive  the  change, using  path  breakers  as  exemplars.   And,   of  course,   the  team should  also  be  involved  in  the process.   However,   getting  the team’s  involvement  calls  for  tact.

“ First,   the  manager  should  not point  out  that  the  team  has  fallen into  a  rut.   Because  the  team  is  in  a Chaotic  Comfort  Zone.   Team members  will  tend  to  discount whatever  the  manager  says  about change,”   says  Saras  Bhaskar.   Getting  a  team  to  add  a  new  role  is easy.


Getting  it  to  shed  an  old  role  is not.   It  is  a  painful  process,   which requires  unlearning  and  moving out  of  the  comfort  zone.   “ The manager  or  leader  has  to  initiate change  by  first  influencing  the team.   Encouragement  is  a  crucial component  here,”   she  says.

She  explains  how  the  team  has to  be  encouraged  to  come  up  with ideas  for  change.   At  this  point, holding  up  a  path  breaker  as  an example  may  not  be  a  great  idea. First,   the  team  has  to  be  helped  to see  that  it  is  creating  the  change. And  that  change  is  not  being  imposed  on  it.   Mentoring  is  an  unintimidating  way  of  promoting change.   In  an  ideal  world,   the path  breaker  can  double  as  a mentor.

“ However,   the  path  breaker can  be  viewed  as  a  threat.   In  this scenario,   getting  a  mentor  outside  the  hierarchy  will  work. Someone  from  another  team, within  the  organisation,   can  be enabled  to  play  a  mentoring  role,” says  Saras  Bhaskar.   This  mentor’s  mandate  is  to  show  how each  team  member  can  break  out of  the  rut  and  open  a  trail  of  his own.

Courtesy: The Hindu Newspaper Dated 08th October 2014.

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