The Scuba Sutras: I Will Be A Good Buddy

The Scuba Sutras: I Will Be A Good Buddy

Observe your team members carefully—and regularly. This will help you fix any problem in your team, even before it crops up. Before you think this is another lecture on teamwork in organisations, let me assure you that it’s not, especially since scuba diving takes the concept of teamwork to a whole new level.

Businessdictionary.com defines “teamwork” as: “The process of working collaboratively with a group of people in order to achieve a goal. Teamwork is often a crucial part of a business, as it is often necessary for colleagues to work well together, trying their best in any circumstance. Teamwork means that people will try to co-operate, using their individual skills and providing constructive feedback, despite any personal conflict between individuals.”

Sounds familiar? Sure, we have all heard different versions of this definition from various people. We’ve also heard that to be a good “team player”, we must be focused on the overall goal of the team, be available to other team members when they ask for help, and so on.

Allow me to show you how scuba diving adds to this.

As you may remember from my earlier columns, a person never, ever dives alone; you always dive in pairs. And before you dive, you carefully check your own equipment, and then your diving buddy’s, before you give each other the OK signal and back-flip off the boat into the water.

While waiting for other divers to enter the water, the buddy pairs check each other out again before beginning the dive.

During the dive though, the concept of teamwork takes on a whole new meaning. As you dive, you keep one eye on the sights around you, and another on your buddy. Ever so often, you catch each other’s eye and query with hand signals if everything is fine. And you also carefully check each other—proactively—to make sure the other person is fine.

Any sign of discomfort, such as struggling to keep up with the group, or bobbing up and down too often, or even constantly trying to tighten the straps that hold the equipment is a signal for the buddy to step in—without being asked by the other diver to help out.

As a diver, there are no “hierarchies”.

I have played diving buddy to a 12-year-old boy, as well as a 60-year-old granny. In both cases, there was no “lead” buddy and no “follower” buddy. Both of us were “equal” while diving.

About a year ago, I started mentoring the team of a start-up working in the area of clean energy. Their product was cutting-edge; it enabled farmers to generate energy using their cattle, thereby reducing their dependence on grid power. Farmers could also sell surplus energy to the grid. This made sure that they weren’t dependent on agriculture alone to generate income.

The start-up was beginning to get noticed. It had begun working with microfinance companies to offer loans to farmers to buy its equipment. Some of the larger non-governmental organisations were offering to connect the company with their self-help groups to offer the solution. Enquiries were flooding in not just from India, but other agrarian countries, such as Brazil and Bangladesh.

Things were looking very rosy indeed.

And then, one of the founders called me in panic.

His co-founder was bailing out on him. If that happened, the business would be in serious trouble—and he knew it.

I wasn’t surprised to hear that, though. The signals had been quite obvious. Right from the beginning of our association, the co-founder had been expressing his misgivings: he had EMIs to pay, his child was just joining school, and his cash commitments were increasing. Joining a start-up, full time, was definitely scaring him.

Moreover, despite the progress being made by the company, the cash flows weren’t increasing. And while the first founder was hugely enthusiastic about future prospects, the second one was increasingly showing signs of discomfort. His participation in meetings was more lethargic. His e-mails were curt and to the point. And he was calling me less frequently as compared to earlier, when would think nothing of picking up the phone and talking to me.

My friend, on the other hand, was on a high. He was so carried away by the progress his company was making, that he didn’t pay any attention to what his teammates were feeling. The result was that he had completely failed to notice early warning signals. And, the organisation was now in serious trouble.

Here’s another example. At a recent workshop I was conducting in Goa, a vice president from one of the world’s largest talent development organisations began to look distinctly uncomfortable when I related this example of being a good buddy. I asked him what he was thinking of.

“You know, I’ve been noticing that one of my teams has been taking more breaks than is normal. Nothing serious, you know, results haven’t fallen at all, but I don’t know. Maybe I’m reading more into this thing than is warranted,” he said.

I asked him what he thought a diver would do if he saw signs of discomfort in his buddies. He excused himself to make a phone call. When he got back, he looked shaken.

 “I spoke to one of those people, the guy I know better than the others. Four people in that team of six are disillusioned, and want to quit! They don’t have any other job offers yet, but... God! If this had happened, I’d be struggling to fix this problem! Anyway, I’ve told them that I’m back tomorrow evening, and the day after that, we are all going out to grab a coffee and talk about what is bothering them, and what we can do to fix it,” he informed us.

If you look back at these two situations, one thing becomes immediately apparent. In organisations, “teamwork” and “being a team player” is mostly reactive. You react when someone asks you for help, or you react when you see people going off in a different direction to the team’s goals. In an uncomfortably large number of cases, it’s too late by then.

Scuba diving sensitises you to observe your team members carefully, and regularly—and pro-actively move toward fixing any team problems that might crop up. You get tuned to watching the behaviour of your team mates and you know quickly when that behaviour is off-key.

I’d like you to think about this—have you observed any behavioural changes in your team members? And yes, your boss counts as a team member, too, (remember when I spoke about diving with a 12-year-old, and a 60-year-old?). Chances are that they are experiencing some discomfort.

As a good team player, sorry, I should say, as a good buddy, it’s your job to step in, offer help, and retrieve the situation before it goes out of control. 

In scuba diving, you get tuned to watching your teammates carefully—and spotting quickly when their behaviour is off-key.


About the Author: Guhesh Ramanathan is a mentor at the entrepreneurship cells of IIM Bangalore and IIM Ahmedabad. He serves on the boards of several companies, and is an advanced certified scuba diver.

Stay Connected with MYB

Other Interesting Stories

Add new comment