adminBen Chinganze A Bassfisherman’s Approach
A COUPLE of weeks ago, we went fishing with Chikoz to Chatter Grade Estate. We were a group of 10 bass fishermen.
On our way there, we talked excitedly about how we were going to outdo each other in the dam. We all agreed that we would fish together near each other so that no one would miss out on catching at prolific sites.
When we arrived at the dam the group somehow disintegrated. Though the nine of us were fairly close to each Chikoz chose to be independent of the rest of us and fished alone. Efforts to beg him to join us proved fruitless as he did not yield to the group’s desire to be together. He remained resolute with his desire to fish alone. We realised that no amount of persuasion could move him from his chosen path and left him to fish alone.
Whereas we relied heavily on each other to scout for prolific spots, he relied on his own hunting abilities and instincts to find good spots. Never before had I witnessed a fisherman who enjoyed solitude and excel on his own. He celebrated each success in ecstatic joy and dancing frenzy.
He reminded me of soccer fans who I used to notice sitting alone at the giant National Sports Stadium regardless of how packed the stadium was.
Collectively we did very well as team. It was easier to find out which rubber was doing well by merely looking and observing who was getting more bites and adjust one’s bait accordingly. This reduced our cost of investigations significantly which reduced our investigation time.
Occasionally team members would assist each other with a landing net when the other one caught a big bass. We were leveraging on each other’s strength. We were copying each other as well as perfecting what we had copied from the other. There is no doubt that a team can achieve much more than an individual.
However, Chikoz’s performance brought a refreshing dimension to individual performance. Though we benefited immensely from collective effort, he actually benefited by being in an independent environment where he was free to think and experience without our interference.
There are personalities who seem to excel when they are independent of any team or when they are participating in a correct team. Lionel Messi is an exceptional player when playing for Barcelona but he is a pale shadow of himself when turning out for Argentina (his national team). To play in the correct team is in most cases out of luck than own design. This implies a lot of talent has gone unnoticed because some talented people often choose to play for the wrong teams.
Jonah Moyo excelled during the time he was partnering with his original Devera Ngwena Jazz Band and his fortunes nosedived after parting ways with his original band members. Though his voice and equipment were still the same, he could not match the quality of music he used to play with his original Devera Ngwena Jazz Band. This seems to imply that he could only succeed in the partnership of the “right band members” not any other guitarists. Sometimes teams emphasise more on groups without paying attention to cohesion, motivational fit, team spirit and team attitude. We tend to overlook the group dynamics that can make or break an individual.
One of our local sporting heroes, Cara Black, excelled as a tennis doubles player. She performed very well in a team environment and has a lot of accolades as a doubles player and no notable titles to her name as a singles player. From the few samples of notable entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe I have observed some of them tend to work better alone. I have also observed some who succeed in partnerships and fail dismally in projects they do alone.
Yes, teams enable us to do better than what we can do individually but there are exceptions to this collectively accepted wisdom. Chikoz demonstrated that he is more comfortable using his intuition than in relying on the team’s intuition.
He says that although he acknowledges the power of a team versus an individual, his DNA works well in an independent environment. He finds it easier to accelerate when he makes his own independent judgments than rely on collective judgments.
Roger Federer is one of the greatest tennis players to grace this planet. He was both a talented tennis and soccer player. He chose to specialise in tennis because he wanted to determine his own destiny on his own rather than depending on other team members to succeed .To succeed in a team environment everyone must put in adequate effort which does not happen all the time.
There are individuals out there who perform remarkably well, when their destinies are in their own hands than as team players. Outstanding people in fields such systems design and computer programming seem to prefer to work alone.
At times teams might interfere with the concentration span in these specialist fields.
In organisation set-ups, management should be able to decipher such parameters whereby one thrives well in a team environment than being left alone. On the other hand, other people enjoy standing on their own, must be given some leeway to enjoy public individuation.
The writer is a Managing Consultant at CLC Training International. E-mail [email protected]
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