The heart of change

¶ … Change

The major point or observation being focused on is the story displayed on page 50. The story is written by author Roland de Vries. The author discusses the post war scenario in South Africa and how he was entrusted to integrate seven different armies into one single national unit. The seven different armies were defense forces related to the apartheid regimes wherein two armies were related to the liberation armies while four were from the homeland. These armies fought against one another for several years, and now they are being asked to sit across the table and negotiate towards an integrated army for South Africa. In the first meeting, representatives from all the seven armies were brought together. Everyone acted professionally and there was not shouting or talking without turn. The author believes this was because of mistrust as no one was willing to let their heart out. However when the writer took the bold step of negating the purpose of these meetings by asserting that the goals are superficial and impractical, other joined in and started to talk about their experiences. That was the first time progress was made. Not everyone adapted a safe approach and people started talking about what was at stake for them. None of the parties could envision a joint national force at that point in time.

After this meeting the author decided to hold all future meetings via camping trips where everyone would sit around the fire and talk about personal stories. This idea turned out to be successful as many representatives opened their heart out and started telling war stories. The turning point came about when one night the boat they were traveling on capsized and it threw Solly Mollo (a leader of the liberation army) and the author in the sea. Solly Mollo could not swim and so the author decided to help him out. They were stuck in the ocean for over an hour before they were rescued and during this time they both talked about their war experiences: how their families coped having a loved one being in the army? How they were victims of racism? And so on. The discussions were very personal and very candid. This moment had a great impact on the results and its quite amazing to see how a group of enemies can actually sit down and do all of this fascinating stuff.

Theoretical framework

The most important fact of teamwork is perhaps its familiarity with each other. A team which is made up of a majority of similar members over a long period of time will not only get used to each other but also understand each other and cover up the flaws that the other members might have. There will be an excellent level of team spirit and loyalty. Perhaps one of the best ways in which teams are maintained over a long period of time is by making sure that all the team members share the same goals and objectives. The team leaders also assess the cost-benefits of the existence of the team as well as make sure that the team that is being selected is the best in its form and is most suitable to achieve the long-term objectives of the team. They also carry out a constant analysis about whether the team is working at its best and if there needs to be any modifications due with the passage of time (Adair and Thomas, 2004). One can see that the author of the story had all of these characteristics and he displayed, by design, most of the aforementioned skills in the meetings.

There is no doubt as to the fact that each team has certain principle procedures and patterns that they follow in their work environment. Even though on the surface these might seem very casual but the application of these procedures is what makes a team unified, consistent and effective and perform at a high level. Perhaps one of the most important tasks for an efficient team is the ability of problem-solving. Problems usually are tackled by the whole team or one individual of the team depending on the spectrum of the effect of the problem. Usually problem-solving deals with the team coming up with practical and immediate solutions so that the overall performance of the team is not affected; or it mainly deals with tackling unforeseen circumstances and adapting to them to avoid loss in form or shape (Adair and Thomas, 2004). The biggest problem the team leader faced was: how can these enemies open up and talk about what is really inside their hearts so that progress can be made? He did that and from that point onwards, they were highly successful.

When the team shares the same objectives and goals and wants to succeed within the same setup that is when they are most inspired to work hard and find effective solutions that might not be so simply achieved. It is solely the task of the team leader to make sure that the whole team is on the same page and to allow them the space to be creative and original when coming up with effective solutions. It is also partly dependent upon the presentation of the problem that can inspire a team and this representation is also the team leader's job. Also, the team is made to feel that they can come up with a solution even if at first it doesn't seem likely or takes a long time. This encourages the team members to hone their abilities and then work together with each of their stronger attributes to come up with the likely solutions (Adair and Thomas, 2004).