Don’t get settled !

“What happen when we move in a new situation” or for the sake of simplicity of understanding let’s say what you feel when you join a new team. You as an “individual” bring in your learning, your individuality to the whole team. You get acquainted with the processes prevailing in the team. Some of these processes you would have experienced before, some you would have never heard of. Things which are new are tough to digest and practice. We react to it: we start questioning, we feel little uncomfortable towards the new things. We start influencing the process by “trying to modify” the existing process. That is the “individuality” you bring on to the team, which should be highly respected. Some of these processes are good, efficient, valuable etc. Some has room for modification, replacement.

During the initial phase of settling down we feel strongly about these processes. Given a chance we would want to change it or replace it. This feeling of bringing change lasts from starting few days to few weeks in the new team and varies from individual to individual. What happens after few days: we get settled, we get adjusted to the situation. Though we don’t give 100 % to the process still we follow that. Is it of any use ?  No ! If we can’t assimilate it, it’s going to get drained out ! Now this is what I call “feeling comfortable” or “being Settled”.

What should be done? I would say bring a change! Get a bunch of guys, sit in a room, brainstorm the idea you have, open it for discussion,list down the merit and demerits of it. See if it is valuable, then let’s get it working. An idea gets lost if we don’t track the progress of it. Also we should keep that idea reviewing in the context of project. Some questions which will help assessing it are “Is it adding value to the team work”, “Is the team getting benefitted out of it”, “Should we improve/change it”. Team should be flexible and open for change (Change which is for betterment for larger mass).

We should always understand that processes which were working well in past may not be relevant in the latest scenario . And if you feel there is a need for change then don’t get settled.