Badminton Analogy - Putting it to work

I was thinking about to write this article for quite some time, finally got some time to write about it.

I am a regular badminton player (not professional though) but I love to sweat out on court with some like minded working professionals who want to take out the work pressure on a badminton court. For those who haven't tried this yet, I would recommend to try it once. The game would really test your fitness and in a way teach you so many things, the more I think about it, the more I learn. One question that you might be thinking about, why Badminton and not Tennis Or Cricket ? Well the simple answer is, I didn't play those in recent times.

Interestingly, I started to put some analogies of Badminton relating it to work and there were so many I was able to make, made me curious to write this article. There are many such small things which I was able to notice, and thought to share it further. Many of you might OR might not agree to thoughts, I welcome any constructive comments.

So, playing with a set of group everyday, started to give generation to my first analogy. If I am playing with same set of people every day, I was able to play much better with them and so can they, with me. Reasons ? As you might have guessed already, I know their play, their moves, their stamina, their strengths etc, most importantly, I have a rapport and trust with them. I am able to infact predict lot of their moves and accordingly INNOVATE to play a different move to score a point. Same applies to opponent team too. Doesn't that happen with work ? The more you work with a project, the more you work with your clients and your internal team on regular basis, you can predict their move and to score a better point you need to INNOVATE. Conclusion for me, staying in same team and same project for long, you need to constantly innovate to score your point, you will get more in-depth knowledge of the project. In a T shape learning, you are on the vertical line.

Now what happens when you see a new player as your opponent ? It takes some time to understand his shots, speed of smashes, drops, tactics. If he is a good player, high chances he might score high points initially until you understand his game. But interestingly, what happens during the game is, you DO start to find his sweet spot quickly to try and score a point. Result ? A faster INNOVATION. First, you will feel good that you got a different variety to play (some may not if they lost the game), but constructive thinkers will. Takeaway, playing with different set of players will increase the breadth of your play, will bound you to play with variety. Conclusion for me, working with new team mates, new project will make you bound to innovate faster and let you find better ways of working increasing your breadth of work and thus experience. In a T shape learning, you will be on the horizontal line here.

Lets take a use case of a doubles match. This is interesting. Think about three scenarios, first - when your partner is a known person and you know who plays as good as you, or even better. Second - when your partner is a known person and you know he doesn't play well, and third - when your partner is a new person and you don't know his game. Ever observed what happens in three different games ?

In my opinion, in the first case - you will have a good game, in second case - you probably will have a bad / unsatisfying game and in third game - it will be interesting for first 5-10 points for sure. Reasons ? Major factor is TRUST. You trust someone in first case, You DON'T trust someone in second case, and you are BUILDING your trust in third case. Lets map it to work now. What happens when you have to co-work with a team mate who is as good (or better) than you, who is not a good buddy, who is a new member ? Here is where the analogy starts to change !!

When you have a team-mate who is as good (or better) than you, you can actually enjoy your project / work really however in many cases it becomes a competition. Why !! A team-work here is real key to success. An individual success is NOT going to sustain long and demoralizes the co-worker. Soon the game will change from 1st case to 2nd, LACK OF TRUST. As a referee, you can see the faults in the game, but you can not see faults in intention. As a people manager (referee), it is very hard to identify the ground level happenings on competing with in the team. Need to push the culture of "if the team succeeds, the project will" instead of "if YOU succeed, project will". As a referee would you want success of one partner OR the team ?

About the second case, you already are in zone of lack of trust. Two kind of people here, one who will give up the game already by playing in lowest form, second, who will still give their best to score points, but also make strategy with partner to win the game. This first category will ONLY look for weak shots or misses by partner, the second category will NEVER look for weakness rather will try and find a way to still win the match. This very much applies to work. It is EXTREMELY important for people managers to notice the second kind of people who are helping their fellows to gain the speed and working strategically with them complete the project. It is absolutely vital to promote this culture for a long term success. Another aspect is, It is important for mentees to recognize the efforts the mentor is putting to bring them in the game and keep the spirit up. As mentee, DON'T test the patience of your mentor :)

Now the last one, it is imperative that you will take time to build the trust, but reality will come out in within first 10 points. A person will tend to become one of two persona described above, do you loose interest and start playing loose OR you start creating the strategy to still win the game. I guess by now you can put your analogy on work from this.

Welcome your feedback on the theory.

A "GAME" of Badminton can be "GAME CHANGER" on how you think and perform !!

Ciao