Understanding teams with Watership Down

Understanding teams with

Watership Down

Maurizio Lupo

@sithmel

Applying the model

And I found this model applies very well to Watership Down.
Watership Down is a fantasy adventure novel by English author Richard Adams, published in 1972.
The story features a small group of rabbits with their own culture, language, proverbs, poetry, and mythology.
The novel follows the rabbits as they escape the destruction of their warren and seek a place to establish a new home, encountering perils and temptations along the way.

What I am going to do now, is to pick up some episode from the book and show you many different lens we can use to observe a team.
Without further ado, let's see how we can read the story in this new light.

A new warren

A group of individuals is not a team.

They can become a team.

If they have a common GOAL

The goal should be:

discussed within the team
explicit rather than implicit
compatible with organisation goal
supported by the organisation
measurable
doable

The journey

This new group of rabbits sets on a journey to find a new home.
It is a dangerous situation: rabbits have numerous natural predators; foxes, weasel etc. Their survival strategy is to run and hide in their holes, but they can't because they are far from their old home.

But they are a group of resourceful rabbits.
Hazel realizes how difficult the situation is, and does his best to take care of the smallest and more vulnerable rabbits.
There is Bigwig, the strongest rabbit, that goes patrolling the area, to check if it is safe.
Dandelion helps conforting the rabbits, telling them stories.
Blackberry, the smartest rabbit, figures out a way to float the rabbits on a piece of wood, and to cross a river safely.

Roles cover these areas:

result
methodology
innovation
communication

Issues around roles:

missing key areas
leader-does-all
member without role

Hospitality

The rabbits go through several adventures before Hazel successfully brings them to a field where they believe they can live.
But the field is already inhabited by a group of rabbits, who seem strange but let the travelers stay with them.
Fiver warns the rabbits not to join the new warren, but they do not listen to him because the living is easy and there is food for everyone.
There is something odd about the warren, but they cannot figure out what it is.
Finally, after an argument with Fiver, Bigwig gets caught in a snare.
Fiver figures it all out, explaining to the group that a farmer leaves the food behind for the rabbits in order to fatten them up before he catches them in his snares. They decide to leave

Managing conflicts (some guidelines):

never ignore
do not blame but find causes
negotiate and not barter
talk facts and not opinions
value different point of view
value common points
do not put proposal in conflict, but in relation

Watership Down

Emerging team characteristics:

Openess: how neat are the boundaries of the team?

Cohesion: do we share the same norms and values ?

Interdependence: how much we depend each other?

Fragmentation: can we recognise subgroups in the team?

Specialisation: are we able to cover all necessary functions?

Integration: do we accept each other ideas?

Kehaar

Do not use rabbit language with birds!

Take into consideration culture, roles, context

Efrafa

Kehar founds a big overcrowded warren a few miles of distance. Hazel decide to send an expedition.
The expedition comes back roughed up, describing Efrafa as a horrible warren run by a militaristic warlord.
Hazel decides that they must go to Efrafa and get some does, because otherwise they will not survive.
Hazel is attempting to do something extremely difficult, and he hopes to be able to do it by utilizing all of the rabbits' resources to the fullest.
Blackberry will provide the plan,
Bigwig the strength and daring,
Kehaar the element of surprise,
Fiver the guidance,
and Hazel the coordination and leadership.

Institutional leader

Responsible for team's output, goal and resources

Leadership issues

Lack of competence
Tyrant leader
Different from team expectations

Epilogue

Thanks!