DREWspective

It’s my 26th birthday soon, and this year I plan on doing something. Wish me a good one.

Now, I’ve had one nagging question that has gone unanswered for a long time, and now it’s time for me to air my views. The question is, what is a team?

I’ve had three commercial permanent jobs in the last three years, all lastng less than a year (not proud of it, but possibly a clue that I should take the freelancing route). The main reason for leaving those, beside my personality quirks, is the notion of not being part of a practical, working team.

As I’ve told a recruiter recently, I’ve worked in "gangs" and "dictatorships" before, but not a team. You can accuse me of not being a team player, but that’s because I haven’t had any noticable experience in working in a team - not even in primary or high school.
Anyone can call their employees a team, or call themselves a team player, just like people are designated "leaders". Saying is very different to being.

So what is a team?

Before I answered the question myself, I did a quick search online to see if any other sources agreed. The main quote from Penn State’s Building Blocks for Teams page mirrors my initial reasoning, and explains it in a better way than I ever could:

"A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable."

- Katzenbach and Smith, 1993

Basically, my idea of a team is:

• a group of people working towards a common goal;
• that have relevant skills among them;
• recognise each other as [important] members;
• take responsibility;
• and has a leader (or leader(s) that leads the team toward the goal.

Some other great links that define what it means to be in a team, and being a team member:

http://www.belbin.com/rte.asp?id=8
http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-a-Team?&id=328949

One disturbing phrase I’ve overheard time and time again is "get xxx to do yyy".

Before you start complaining that I’m making something out of nothing, let’s break it down to see why it’s bad.

• The first part of the sentence is "get xxx". Does that sound familiar? Almost as if a hitman’s contract has been made on you, doesn’t it seem?
  Although the implication sounds morbid, that’s exactly what it sounds like; the intention is to "get" someone. Someone has been specifically targeted for the task at hand.
• The second part is "to do yyy" - something they can’t (or in many cases, simply won’t) do. Basically it’s intended to load someone with a burden, or in most cases to pass the resonsibility on to someone else.
  Sometimes the task may be trivial, but you can bet there’ll be several more like it if you accept it.
• The whole term "get xxx to do yyy" implies controlling another person, or at least coercing them into doing what you or someone else wants, with little to no regard of how difficult it might be for them.

Let me know what you reckon.

I’ve always found that, when I’m employed, I’m far more productive in terms of my own projects as well as the employer’s.

I also start coming up with more and more ideas for personal projects, that I just don’t have enough hours in the day to implement. If I do find the time, however, the motivation goes right out of the window.

Can you relate?

Since I’ve started working, I’ve had several ideas for businesses, software, animated films, art projects, crafts, movies, novels and many more random things. Some of these things have been started already (e.g. the chibiModels, The Ignored Board), and things such as my first novel have been in progress for years now. Unfortunately, mostly due to lack of time and energy, many of these great ideas never leave the drawing board; most recently I dropped an idea of starting a centralised portal site for the famous 100 Theme Challenge.

One of the reasons I get so frustrated when this happens is because I don’t have a team of people I can work with. In fact, I don’t know anybody with the skillsets suitable for the kinds of projects I have ideas for. I’ll admit, I haven’t done a good enough job of finding such people.

(On a separate note: when I say team, I mean a team in a traditional sense: a group of people working together, each bringing their own skillset to the table. I might talk about this some more in a future post.)

If I had at least one person working with me on the ideas I’ve come up with, I’m very certain I’d be well on the way to becoming a rich man. Most of my anger and frustration seems to come from the idea of having to do everything myself, because I’ve almost never gotten the help I needed (even when asking for it).

Another problem is a lack of confidence on my part, and possibly discrimination on the part of other people. Many times I feel that I could have the greatest idea in the world, but it wouldn’t be successful because people would see that I created it. On the other hand, if someone else were to create it, they’d be rolling in money.
I’ve often wondered whether it would be better to put myself forward with my ideas, or to take a back seat and go by some pen name or something. Maybe then my work would be appreciated?

Yet one more thing that gets in the way is being protective of my ideas. I am very protective - almost paranoid - about all of my ideas, because I’ve heard recent stories of people profiting from ideas they’ve "borrowed" from other people.
Since there’s no concrete way of protecting your ideas, one has to be very careful. Maybe not careful to the point of reclusiveness, but careful enough.

So what can you do, when you’re flooded with things you want to implement?

My strategy is to write them down as soon as you get them, no matter where in the world you are. Make sure you write your ideas down on paper, by any means necessary, andn begin fleshing them out in a mindmap.

You might not realise all of your ideas, but writing them down will help to empty your mind. Trust me; you don’t want them ping-ponging all around your brain for too long.