Last weekend was another Ultimate tournament. I had the honour to captain a team of players from all over India. While being a Leo, I never felt too comfortable leading larger groups – especially when they are heterogenous. Smaller teams, with keen people, yes. A flock of people instead just always felt like herding cats. No offence, but I think everybody who has tried that, knows how it feels. That, I guess is one reason why people are so often scared of taking initiative and responsibility.
Lao-Tse says on the topic of leadership: “In order to lead people one must follow them.”
I find his saying true in many cases, but not always. I find it true in situations where the initiative comes from the people, where the goals are somewhat aligned and people do not feel clueless. Now, in situations where the flock does not know where to go, it needs a leader that leads the way. Thus the expression of “stepping up and taking the lead”. But, due to these circumstances it is that I feel more comfortable to lead by walking behind, and also find the result to be better.
Also, Ernest “Che” Guevara said something similar, conveyed in Soderbergh’s highly recommendable movie Che (semantic transcription):
The final strength is an army’s size multiplied with an unknown x. This x equals to the spirit of the troops and their desire to fight and confront danger. Men with the desire to fight and an understanding of why will put themselves into the most advantageous position and triumph no matter under who’s command or with what weapons the fight.
Understanding, what is going on and why one is doing what one does takes some experience, such as that of a good leader. But at the end, the leader can only plant a seed and try growing that into something that guides the people. That is why smaller groups are more efficient and more successful, when they share the goal and understand what they do. Smaller groups only need principles, because their actions are governed by understanding. Larger, uneducated groups however, need rules, because the complexity of the system supersedes their comprehension.
Now, what do we do with this dry pondering here, we can deduct a few things:
- Small, keen and understanding teams always outmanoeuvre large herds.
- If you lead a small team, lead as little as possible, remove obstacles for them.
- If you lead a big team you need to lead by example and you need a good codex until enough understanding has been created.
- Smaller groups are more likely to self-organise around their goal. People will do what is necessary to reach the goal. Large groups instead idle.
For me, this deducts into the fact that I prefer working in smaller teams, where one has to be very critical about every change in the staffing, but things will happen.
And yes, the tournament was a success. We had a lot of fun playing, I think everyone learned some things, we won the Spirit of the Game award and we managed to get two penniless youth coaches to come all the way to Singapore to play. I hope that motivated people to work further on the Indian Ultimate scene and grow the sport and its reach further into society and the Indian youth.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to honour or dishonour any of the notions connected to the term and the activities of guerrillas except of the self-organisation around a shared goal.
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