Issa Elkhoury and Srinath Alamela, CEO at Triniti Corporation take a break from data quality to discuss about The three T's - Transparency, Trust and Teamwork.
Srinath - I hope you had a good new years and also enjoyed your IPA's?
Yes Issa. Thank you and hope you had the same. Taking breaks are always good. I did enjoy the IPA's but also mixed it with some single malts and bourbon.
Interesting - you know we should talk at length some time about IPA's, malt whiskey and bourbon. But today I want to talk about Teamwork - are you ready?
Yes Issa of course. Teamwork is critical to success in any effort.
So what makes people feel like they are in a team?
That is a loaded question Issa - many things and perhaps may different ways. If you google "how to build team chemistry?" you will get a ton of hits. I have looked at it differently and will ask you the negation - what would prevent teamwork?
Lack of a common goal?
Sure. That is the most essential attribute. Is that all? Once again all the experts cite common goals - but beyond that they all differ on which methods work and which do not. And I have rejected these methods because I have felt they are dependent on people. Can you team up with someone, who you do not trust?
Certainly not. You and I have been a team for more than 19 years - but trust is the cornerstone for it. Now that you mention it, I am looking back at how we have been able to sustain that. We have been through so many ups and downs, fought legal battles, downturns, desisted unethical business practices and relationships, but our trust has been intact. But going back to people can you not make the argument that it was still "people" - you and I. You know we had some bad apples.
Yes Issa - you are right. I am as proud of it as you are. In the process, we also made sure that we did not compromise on our core principles of integrity and our commitment to employees and customers. We have always put them first, ahead of our interests. Our common goal and vision was exactly that. It is also the people, but we need a method which forces the "wrong" people to exit the team, rather than drag it down. So you need a mechanism to build the other block - trust. If you have a common goal and you trust a bunch of people then team chemistry automatically builds you do not have to force it.
Yes we did. Even in the most troubled times we did not miss payroll even though we had to put back money to do just that.
So what did we do to build that trust? Would it have been possible if we had hid things from each other?
Certainly not. It would have fostered total mistrust.
So there you go Issa - the most important attribute building trust is transparency.
Agreed. Should we summarize it as the three T's? Transparency leads to Trust which leads to Teamwork?
Nice. The three T's. I will add that transparency also includes all the good you do. It is important that your partners in any shared initiative know that so that they do not take you for granted. In fact it is transparency that allows the bad apples to fall off as they are forced to being transparent and they are not comfortable doing that. Transparency also fosters recognition of common goals as in you are not saying one thing while covertly trying to achieve something else.
Yes Srinath. I agree. We need to be transparent on all accounts. Now I also can relate to what Sanjay Bhatnagar said about our all hands meeting "I have never seen this kind of transparency in any organization".
Indeed Issa. Let us conclude with the three T's: Transparency, Trust and Teamwork. It is simple - but not easy. It takes time and effort but the principles are simple. If you do not compromise and persist it works!
On that note, IPA's next?
Perhaps :-)
Srinath - I hope you had a good new years and also enjoyed your IPA's?Yes Issa. Thank you and hope you had the same. Taking breaks are always good. I did enjoy the IPA's but also mixed it with some single malts and bourbon.Interesting - you know we should talk at length some time about IPA's, malt whiskey and bourbon. But today I want to talk about Teamwork - are you ready?Yes Issa of course. Teamwork is critical to success in any effort.So what makes people feel like they are in a team?That is a loaded question Issa - many things and perhaps may different ways. If you google "how to build team chemistry?" you will get a ton of hits. I have looked at it differently and will ask you the negation - what would prevent teamwork?Lack of a common goal?Sure. That is the most essential attribute. Is that all? Once again all the experts cite common goals - but beyond that they all differ on which methods work and which do not. And I have rejected these methods because I have felt they are dependent on people. Can you team up with someone, who you do not trust?Certainly not. You and I have been a team for more than 19 years - but trust is the cornerstone for it. Now that you mention it, I am looking back at how we have been able to sustain that. We have been through so many ups and downs, fought legal battles, downturns, desisted unethical business practices and relationships, but our trust has been intact. But going back to people can you not make the argument that it was still "people" - you and I. You know we had some bad apples. Yes Issa - you are right. I am as proud of it as you are. In the process, we also made sure that we did not compromise on our core principles of integrity and our commitment to employees and customers. We have always put them first, ahead of our interests. Our common goal and vision was exactly that. It is also the people, but we need a method which forces the "wrong" people to exit the team, rather than drag it down. So you need a mechanism to build the other block - trust. If you have a common goal and you trust a bunch of people then team chemistry automatically builds you do not have to force it.Yes we did. Even in the most troubled times we did not miss payroll even though we had to put back money to do just that.So what did we do to build that trust? Would it have been possible if we had hid things from each other?Certainly not. It would have fostered total mistrust.So there you go Issa - the most important attribute building trust is transparency.Agreed. Should we summarize it as the three T's? Transparency leads to Trust which leads to Teamwork?Nice. The three T's. I will add that transparency also includes all the good you do. It is important that your partners in any shared initiative know that so that they do not take you for granted. In fact it is transparency that allows the bad apples to fall off as they are forced to being transparent and they are not comfortable doing that. Transparency also fosters recognition of common goals as in you are not saying one thing while covertly trying to achieve something else.Yes Srinath. I agree. We need to be transparent on all accounts. Now I also can relate to what Sanjay Bhatnagar said about our all hands meeting "I have never seen this kind of transparency in any organization".Indeed Issa. Let us conclude with the three T's: Transparency, Trust and Teamwork. It is simple - but not easy. It takes time and effort but the principles are simple. If you do not compromise and persist it works!On that note, IPA's next?Perhaps :-)