LAST Sunday I wrote about towers and bricks, alluding that the dependence of a dominating structure like a tower on thousands of bricks can be an analogy for achieving success through teamwork. A reader wrote: “Bricks and tower is not quite the appropriate analogy for achieving success through teamwork. I think it is more apt to say that working with a team is like trying to build a wall with bananas.”
BANANA BRICKS: I do find the idea of ‘building walls with bananas’ an intriguing one.
The reader did not elaborate but I know that he was lifting a line from the speech of a contestant at the recent Toastmasters Table Topic (impromptu) Contest. That brave soul (the contestant) under pressure of time (each contestant was given five seconds to think about the subject before the clock started to run), in an attempt to say something unique, (all the other contestants were saying pretty much the same thing about the importance of little parts to the whole) blurted out something about it being easier to build with things of precise dimensions (like bricks) than bananas, which come in different sizes. He was not able to expound further, the red light, which came up at two minutes, put a stop to him. I do find the idea of ‘building walls with bananas’ an intriguing one.
Bricks are great things. They are made to precise dimensions; they can be laid to perfect formation to realise the designer’s dream. Magnificent structures, ancient and modern, the world over, bear testimony to their usefulness. Even in children’s stories we sing praise to those fire hardened clay blocks.
In the story of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ and their escapades with the big bad ugly wolf, it was bricks that saved their bacon. The first pig built his house with straw; the second with wood, and both houses were blown down with a huff and a puff from the wolf. The third brother pig built a house of bricks and no matter how the wolf huffed and puffed, the house stood firm. If you want to know how the wolf met his comeuppance and got roasted, you’ll have to read the story yourself. For now suffice to say that bricks are really useful and great.
We even have an idiom ‘you’re a brick’ to express our gratitude and respect for a highly reliable person whom we appreciate. Apparently the expression originated in ancient Greece when the city of Sparta was one of the most formidable military powers of its day. Its king, Lycurgus, boasted that his city could not be conquered because of its invincible walls. When the visiting king actually saw the city of Sparta, to his great surprise there were no walls at all.
“Where are the invincible walls you’ve been boasting about?” asked the visitor.
“These are the walls of Sparta, every man a brick,” replied the king, pointing to his soldiers.
That statement by the King of Sparta is a paradox. The king was proud that his soldiers were drilled to be a perfect fighting machine. However, the very act of reducing them to mere automatons had in fact diminished these men. Human beings are more than just bricks.
Let me backtrack a bit — to the shortcoming of likening achieving success with a team of humans to building a tower with bricks. As I said, bricks are a wonderful invention. They are precise and exact. They give the builders the assurance of reliability. Those that do not fit to the plan can be cut to size, and those that have flaws can be discarded with impunity. Thus great structures can be built with these little blocks.
But humans, now that’s a different kettle of fish (pardon the expression). Though many are reliable, reliability is not an assured trait of man. Man is full of foibles and he carries with him an emotional baggage bias and prejudices that many a time colour his perception and cloud his judgements. More importantly, there resides in all of us a monster that is not easy to tame. I am talking about the human ego. Yes, we are not as predictable as bricks. And unlike bricks we come in all shapes and sizes — physically, psychologically and intellectually. Now, try building a wall with this bunch of bananas. To the uninitiated, bananas are pretty similar in shape and size. Those of us from banana-producing countries know better. They come in all shapes and sizes — from the petite and sweet finger banana (in Hokkien we call it rice banana) to the huge plantain (pisang tanduk — horn banana).
That is the challenge that faces us in all our enterprises. We have to work with humans — emotional, temperamental and unpredictable beings. Some people despair at the thought and come up with sayings like, ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’. An even more telling expression of the lack of faith in working with a team is ‘a camel is a horse designed by a committee’. I am not partial to this statement. Firstly, it is an insult to camels. It is implying that a camel is an ugly creature and that its distinguishing features, such as its humps and poor temperament, are taken to be deformities that resulted from poor design. Secondly, it is such a defeatist attitude towards group decision-making.
In my book, it is the very dynamism, unpredictability and hence, the uniqueness of each one of us that make our group enterprises so exciting. If we can accept the fact that humans have different traits, if we can try to understand those traits and work to harness them, we can build our towers of success. It is like using the spectrum of all the colours of a rainbow to produce the single white light.
Last week I watched on TV a beautiful football match. It was the European Champions league final between Barcelona and Manchester United. It was a dazzling display by the La Liga Champion, reducing the English Champion, Manchester United, to play the role of lumbering, and sometimes, frenzied giants, of course to no avail.
The newspapers were full of praise of the little genius of a footballer, Lionel Messi. Really, Messi, for all his skills, would not have been able to deliver the Champions Cup to Barcelona. The team has a solid defensive wall, anchored by an outstanding goalkeeper. They have a creative midfield that can slot a defence-piercing pass given half a chance. The goal poachers were offered oodles of chances. It was a triumph of teamwork.
So, next time someone says to you and your friends, ‘you are just a bunch of bananas’, take it as a compliment.
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