Dragon Boat Racing

(This post is actually yesterday's post. I lost the internet last night and so was delayed in posting this.)

Today I went out in a Dragon Boat. It was for work, so we had 8 young people in the boat plus a couple of workers and I was at the back steering the thing. We went out on the Yarra, at the boat sheds and it was quite busy on the water.

Now Dragon Boating is a team sport. Someone sits at the front and bangs the drum to get everyone to row in time. The weight of the crew needs to be balanced on either side of the boat for stability. If people start moving around the boat can tip over. If everyone doesn't paddle at the same time the boat becomes unstable. If someone decides to stop paddling then the boat starts to turn.

It got me thinking about teamwork. Sometimes there is time for democracy. "Who has had enough for the day and wants to get out?" Sometimes there is no time for democracy and you just have to knuckle down and follow the leader. "Watch out for the cruise boat about to ram us!" There is no time for people to panic, stand up and scream "We're going to tip over." Usually if someone does that, that is when the boat tips over.

The problem with good teamwork is knowing what is appropriate for the time. Most teams are autocratic for long periods of time because they either have a controlling leader, lazy team members or decide that democracy is too hard. For most people our default setting seems to be 'tell me what to do.' Good leaders overcome this by encouraging groups to work together to set goals and then implement strategies for achieving them.

How's your dragon boat going?

What I read today:

Service vs Devotion to Jesus

Obama and Gen Y: When the Honeymoon ends