In my last blog post about the leadership management, I talked about how to understand right signals in the environment and how to excel in unknown situations. In this blog post, I would like to talk about another game that we played where the understand of the leadership styles was elaborated quite effectively.
The game was called Tom & Jerry game !
All the Tom’s were representing the leaders / managers and the Jerrys were representing the Teams and the game was to understand the reactions of the team based on the way Tom leads the team.
Situations
The team members were put up in pairs standing in front of each other. One was acting as a Tom & other was supposed to act as a Jerry. The Tom’s were, as I said, leaders and was supposed to move his hands in few sequences and the Jerry was supposed to follow Tom’s movements as instructed in the sequence.
There were four different sequences we were supposed to follow and that represented each of the leadership styles.
Sequence 1 – Tom pushes and Jerry resists. Jerry needs to keep the balance.
As a part of this sequence, Tom & Jerry were supposed lock their palms standing in front of each other. Tom was supposed to push Jerry and Jerry was supposed to resist the push but not push himself.
The most important part of the aspect was that Jerry was supposed to keep the balance.
The situation unfolded as follows as per the timelines,
0th Second – Tom starts pushing Jerry. Jerry starts resisting and tries to keep the balance.
10th Second – Tom starts pushing more. Jerry starts thinking of ways to keep balance and some times takes a step back to avoid too much pressure.
20th Second – Tom keeps up the pressure. Jerry admits that pressure is too much and starts giving up.
30th Second – Tom keeps up the pressure. Jerry finally gives up admitting that he can not keep the balance.
Sequence 2 – Tom pushes and Jerry pushes too. Both needs to keep the balance.
As a part of the sequence, Tom & Jerry were supposed to lock their palms standing in front of each other. Tom & Jerry both were supposed to push each other, however this time, Jerry was allowed to push back with equal efforts.
Again, the most important part of the game was both Tom & Jerry should keep their balance.
The situation, this time, unfolded as follows as per the timelines,
0th Second – Tom starts pushing Jerry. Immediately, Jerry also stars applying pressure. Both start pushing each other.
10th Second – Tom and Jerry both starts putting pressure and starts increasing the pressure. Both start feeling the stress.
20th Second – Tom and Jerry both, reaching a point of high pressure, starts giving up as both admit both can not keep up the pressure.
Sequence 3 – Tom does various random gestures with his hand. Jerry needs to simply follow the movements accurately.
As a part of the sequence, Tom & Jerry were both supposed to stand in front of each other. Tom was supposed to make random gestures with his hand by moving in any direction. He should gradually increase the speed. Jerry was supposed follow and mirror the movements of Tom as much as he can, ensuring to be in sync always.
The situation, this time, unfolded as follows as per the timelines,
0th Second – Tom starts moving and weaving his hands in random directions. Tom feels freedom to choose the way he wants to move the hands. Jerry starts following him. Initially the rhythm seems to be good for both Tom & Jerry and both start enjoying the game.
10th Second – Tom starts increasing the speed of the movement, Jerry starts trying to catch up to the movements.
20th Second – Tom gets fast in doing the movements. Jerry struggles anticipating the moves of Tom and starts lagging behind in the synchronization.
30th Second – Tom & Jerry both are no longer in sync for the movements and the game finally ends as Jerry admits its very hard to catch up Tom and his movements.
Sequence 4 – Tom does random hand movements, Jerry follows him. After a while, Jerry starts doing some movements and Tom starts following him.
As a part of this sequence, Tom & Jerry were to share the responsibility of leading the movements alternatively. Tom was supposed to make random movements with his hands moving in any direction while Jerry will follow him. After a while, Jerry will take over the control and starts moving the hands randomly and Tom will follow him.
The most important part, was the rhythm should be maintained. The situation, unfolded as follows as per the timelines,
0th Second – Tom starts moving and weaving his hands in random directions. Tom feels freedom to choose the way he wants to move the hands. Jerry starts following him. The rhythm seems to be good for both Tom & Jerry and both start enjoying the game.
10th Second – Tom gives the control to Jerry and Jerry starts moving the hands on his own, while Tom starts following him. The rhythm still continues to be good and synchronization looks still good.
20th Second –Tom takes the control back and Jerry is happy to keep following the movements of the Tom. This time, although, he is successful in following Tom for almost all of his movements.
30th Second – Tom gives the control to Jerry and starts following him.
The game actually continues for some more time, however does not show any signs of problems from either Tom or Jerry to continue this way. Ultimately, winning the game by meeting the objective.
In all the above four games, the leaders (Tom) used various leadership techniques to try and get the results and obviously Jerrys (teams) did have various emotions, feelings while following the Leaders. Some, ending in failures, some ending in anger and few ending in confusion, ultimately some of them ending in great satisfaction.
Obviously, I want to write more on the way the teams have felt in above, but looks this post is going to be huge if I continue to write. So, may be I would keep the explanation of the human behaviour and mindset in a separate post for tomorrow / later.
However, till then, please let me know what you feel would have gone through the minds of all Jerry’s and Tom’s under each of above sequence.
I would like to hear your views too !
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