Last weekend I was studying an article about the power of “Bragging about your teams” rather than “bragging about yourself” based on a conversation on a recent animation movie on Disney Hotstar: Raya and the Last Dragon. The movie has been a personal favourite since its launch because of the effortless storytelling & a solid proof of Remote work can create amazing results.
Raya And the Last Dragon was made during the pandemic. The making of the movie had involved about 400 individuals working from home.
I had a 90 minutes Storytelling workshop in Goa yesterday for my colleagues from the Strategic Procurement team. While working on the content a thought crossed my mind, and I embedded the YouTube link to the 3 minutes Raya and the Last Dragon trailer in my slides. Happy with the storytelling framework & the case studies & an activity designed for the workshop, I rested the content on my OneDrive on Sunday morning.
My 4 years old Nephew came visiting us on Sunday evening with his parents for a quick snack and a plan. He wanted to practice his basketball skills on a small, makeshift basketball court in my jogging trail. All decked-up in a sport-shoe, a matching pair of socks, and a small basketball, he looked his best. I picked him up and sniffed his hair, our customary greeting, our team ritual. He somehow finished his snacks and was in the elevator within a few minutes with his face mask on, holding my hand.
We are quite a team since the last four years. He knows that when I grow old, “I’ll hold his hand for support, navigation & balance while walking on busy streets”. It was getting dark, both of us walked up to the court a few hundred meters from our lobby. On the way he hugged a tree (he has named him ‘Nihau’), exchanged greeting with some strangers, requested them to wear their face masks properly.
It was dark when he started practicing. A faint beam of light covered the area, he continued with his throws. The passers-by could hear a random “one more time, one more time” or “fine…let me try once more…thank you for passing the ball.” After a dozen throws he suddenly perfected the art. He had 7 baskets, back to back. Exhilarated, he exchanged a high-five with me. A bead of sweat was gleaming on his happy, handsome face. We continued the practice, he missed a few. I was just picking up the ball, handing it over to him every time. He looked at me for help, ‘it’s not happening, what’s wrong?’ I’m not much of a basketballer myself, still I told him to stick to the rectangular sign on the board just behind the basket as his target. He hit the board with his throw, a couple of times. And… he was back with his high-fives and all smiles again. I smiled through my reading glasses, had forgotten to change the glasses before we came out. We started our journey back home, happy and contented. I reminded him to take a few sips of water once he reaches our place, he merrily nodded in agreement. Touched ‘Nihau’ on his way back, once more.
I’m happy to share my top 3 learnings from last Sunday:
- I knew the exact statistics/data from my nephew’s game that day, but it was his story of hits and misses. And he played to his best of abilities, just picked up the ball every time and refined his throwing skills.
- I had shared a short 10 seconds video of when he got a great shot to his parents & grand- parents. They were ecstatic. I have another 30 seconds of video where he was practicing his shots, going at the basket and the board relentlessly. But that’s for my own learning (happy to be bragging about my two-people team).
- Those high-fives are an absolute must (keep celebrating even your littlest wins with your small ad hoc task teams. It matters… A LOT).
arunprakashray 