Team work: the clothe of Amadou Hampaté Ba*

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A famous African writer once said: “c’est la diversité des fils qui forment la beauté du pagne” (The beauty of a clothe is due to the diversity of its threads). That quote from Amadou Hampaté Bah, symbolizes already what is in my mind, otherwise, it will be more clear after reading this. The experience, to me has every time shown that working in Team is a good way to improve our knowledge of the world through different people with whom we are working. But let us understand each other on a basic before moving forward: at the contrary of a Group where members have no common goal, and which is formed by people just sharing same age, same passion, or the neighborhood and rather looks like a gang, a Team is more a pool of people gathered around a goal to achieve, thanks to clear tasks each one has to perform with interpersonal relations, and as a puzzle, assemble the task to get an expected result in a very various frame of time. A team, to me once again, does not matter background, nationality, religion or whatever else. It is seeking one’s willing to reach a common goal with each member of the group, availability to perform a needed task in order to achieve that objective under the directions of a leader. I am fan of team because nobody can pretend to know everything and can develop himself without others, sooner or later. And what a nice way to bring each member, his talent, ability, difference, to reach what the team seeks, to improve and promote mutual understanding and way to do things and at the end this feeling that cannot be purchased : the joy to have each one worked hard to win. That is the feeling of winning football team, or successful corporate sale and so… team And what is interesting is that a team can move on to become a group but not vice-versa. There is an obligation to meet  some requirements in order to complete that: FORMATION (when people meet to set up), OPPOSITION (when small tension raises while they are getting to know each other), NORMALIZATION (when everybody is aware of his role), ACHIEVMENT of the goal and then the END of the Team until another need. And the former members become just a group with each one with his own issue or goal to manage. So, for all of these, there is nothing better than working in team when it one is committed. Like said Michael Jordan “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” *The Malian Amadou Hampaté Bah was a writer and ethnologist born in Bandiagara on 1900(Mali) and died in Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) on 1991.He is well known for his numerous and famous novels like “l’Etrange destin de Wangrin”, “Amkoulel ,l’enfant Peulh”. He left a huge legacy about diversity that guides the Francophone countries Organization . Goldenapon.wordpress.com @IssaNapon

3 Comments on “Team work: the clothe of Amadou Hampaté Ba*”

  1. I like the quotation, and I agree with your observation on what are the requirements that team members must met in order to preform good team work.

  2. I love the first quote you wrote, I talked about the same ideas in my post. Teams are like puzzles, each person fits differently, but in the end we achieve success!

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