Seeking the goal of ultimate cooperation and team refinement is the aspiration of many managers and business owners. They dream of building a team that can fight side by side, overcome difficulties, and march together toward the pinnacle of success. However, in reality, their expectations of the ideal team can sometimes seem unrealistic—they desire a team that operates efficiently, yet also expect to minimize costs, much like wanting a horse that can run without needing grass.
In the process of collaboration, we often think of a scene where everyone pulls together, like in a tug-of-war, unitedly pulling in the same direction. However, sometimes collaboration also means uniformity in rhythm and pace. For example, there is a type of race where multiple people participate in running together, which not only tests strength but also the synchronization of the team members’ steps.
The common struggle seen by managers is often about adhering to goals, excluding any personal self-interest, and forming a kind of militaristic management model. This may be applicable to simplistic work environments, but facing future complex and variable challenges, this model is clearly not refined and technical enough.
A common scenario is when business owners face poor team efficiency, they tend to blame the human resources department, thinking that they chose the wrong team members. However, the example that will be introduced in this article comes from the 40-man large team raids in the online game “World of Warcraft”. In this game, 40 players are likely to meet by chance. In the process of collaborating to conquer the raid, they need to form multiple small parties, each consisting of different roles such as tanks, damage dealers, healers, crowd controllers, and buffers.
In this team composition, each member of the party plays an indispensable role. They rely on each other, and no one can shift the responsibility onto other members because each role within the party is unique. Such a minimal combat unit ensures the irreplaceability and necessity of each member. These small teams build trust through continued cooperation, and members who are not trusted are removed from the team.
On the basis of building such small teams, an autonomous team model can be established, as is reflected in “World of Warcraft”. Organizations, when eventually sharing results, must focus on two key points. First, ensure that everyone has the opportunity of unexpected surprises; second, leave no room for disputes and gaming over the distribution of benefits, to avoid incurring costs that exceed expectations.
