Reflections on team event

Irrespective of our age / experiences, the learning never stops, and lot more learn from fellow colleagues – other than our daily grind.

I had an opportunity to spend a day with our practice level team outings this week. We were about thirty-five members who went out for a day to have various team-based activities organized by my company. It was indeed nice event, and we all had a wonderful time together. When I reflect upon behaviors of teams / individual members I found some interesting patterns.

Some of the folks who perceived and deemed to be not so smart in their engineering capabilities has shown outstanding talents in some of the sports activities – be it be a Bowling, Go-karting race, Shooting etc. So that has changed some perspectives about them with the rest of the folks. At least such individuals found new respect from colleagues. I can clearly see some good interactions at the end of the day. Also, some are extremely introverts at work, they hardly speak in their professional work. For our surprises, they are most vocal and shown high level energy in many games. I am pleasantly surprised by seeing other sides of such behaviors.

I observed close-knitted small teams like less than 4 members team tend to interact themselves. They formed their own zone for the interactions, and they have not tried to understand / interact with other team members. It was shocking for me as I interact with that team every day. In subtle manner I told them to try to spend time during breakfast / lunch time – but that has not resulted in any fruitful engagement.

The new joiners / young staff would look after senior staff and observe their behavior. For example – I surprised when some junior folks did go through my company profile / also social media handles to understand my designations, role I play and, they follow my articles / group chats. Infact, they seek my opinion for any professional advice / career tips during casual interactions with them. Believe me, I do not know most of them nor did I interact with them in any professional work. So, world would always keep an eye on us on small professional setup – like my organization our size.

Also, few folks are good at managing such outside events. They voluntarily contributed to organizing many facilities such as booking the cabs, deciding on lunch menu, negotiating the price etc. These are skills we shall appreciate as nobody would willingly come forward for such things – specifically in software industry.

There is clear distinction between energy level / approach towards attempting outdoor events. The young folks less than 30 years of age shown high energy and positive frame of mind while few senior folks like me are quite opposite. We preferred to sit and have a long tea/coffee break. Also, when I reflect on myself, I need to improve on my stamina to stay afloat for outdoor games that require some physical strength. I clearly lack that.

Irrespective of our age / experiences, the learning never stops, and lot more learn from fellow colleagues – other than our daily grind.