Effective teamwork

When we hear the word TEAMWORK, the first thing that comes to our mind is the team at work place. Teamwork is work performed by a team..... but EFFECTIVE TEAMWORK is more than that.

So where do we first learn the basics of teamwork? Of course, at home. Being in US for so many years, I never got the enthusiasm or zeal to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi the way I did yesterday. During initial years in US, we try to follow customs and traditions and slowly it fades away for many reasons:

• We are too busy with our work (if both husband and wife are working)
• Once we have kids, don’t get time for ourselves
• Weekends are pretty packed with shopping, laundry and other household work
• Whatever time we get, spend it with friends and outing

Sometimes most of us don’t even track festivals…even if we do, we try to make it simple, pray God at home with one sweet, visit temple and meet friends. That’s the celebration for us and we really feel good about it. But if we try to do it the traditional way, we definitely need more help as it requires lots of effort and work .

After a long time, I celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi with my parents and brother’s family and we all worked as a TEAM (sounds funny…isn’t it?). Here is our work distribution:

• I went with my brother to buy all the Puja stuff on the day before Ganesh Chaturthi
• Kids helped me in Rangoli
• Food preparation by team members ;-):

               Brinjal(eggplant) potato curry and Lentils daal – me
               Lemon rice and rasam – sister-in-law                
              Kudumulu(undrallu/karanji) and puri – mother
               Medu vada and Guggullu – father
House cleaning and dish washing by maids

And then my mom and sister-in-law helped me in Puja preparation. We all sat down, did Puja and then had good meals. Without them, don’t think I had the energy and enthusiasm to celebrate the festival the way it should be.

That shows the importance of effective TEAMWORK and its fruitful result. And of course a FREE lesson to my kids on teamwork. Whether it be at home or office, you need a GOOD TEAM who can understand, support, communicate and contribute. Last... but not the least, captured moments of the work done by great team at home.