The four types of colleagues

My professional career has enabled me to work with different teams around the world. I have worked with a lot of individuals during my career & have had unique experiences. I don’t claim to be an expert on the human psychology, but I have generally seen similar trend anywhere we work in the world. Humans are similar the world over, after all. People tend be good or difficult to work with, both personally and professionally.

My Theory

People have personal and professional aspects in life. They could be similar or different in these two spaces, good or not-so-good. We can have 2 categories each within the personal and professional space:
– Personal “+” types: With folks in this category, we have common interesting topics to share and discuss. We truly enjoy their company on the personal front.
– Personal “-” types: Outside the professional space, there seems no topic of interest. We don’t look forward to meeting them on any personal gathering.
– Professional “+” types”: Great colleagues to work with, skillful, easy to communicate technically and helpful. We truly enjoy working with them in the office.
– Professional “-” types: Difficult to work with, or not very skillful, or not helpful, sometimes communication is an issue. We don’t like working with them.

Its quite easy to classify co-workers in above category by just answering couple of questions: Would you look forward to continue working with your colleague, even after you quit your current company? If yes, then this person is a Professional + for you, a Professional – otherwise. Would you look forward to catching up with your colleague after office hours, maybe for a drink, a dinner or a weekend get together, for example? If yes, then this person is a Personal + for you, a Personal – otherwise.

I believe that every co-worker you work with, could fit in one of the below categories:
– Category A: Personal “+” and Professional “+”
The co-worker in this category is both friendly as a person & helpful professionally (towards you). On the personal front, there are interesting topics to discuss. On the professional front, there is a common purpose & it’s easy to communicate the same.
– Category B: Personal “-” and Professional “+”
The co-worker in this category is professionally skillful, easy to work with at office & probably often bails you out from the difficult situations at work. However, on the personal front, apart from few clichéd conversations there is nothing much to discuss.
– Category C: Personal “+” and Professional “-”
The co-worker in this category is very helpful and friendly on the personal front, with a plethora of topics to discuss. But when it comes to work, they are not skillful enough, or tend to be difficult to work with, causing frequent confrontations and miscommunications.
– Category D: Personal “-” and Professional “-”
The co-worker in this category is difficult to work with in the professional world. There are no common topics of interest on the personal space, either.

Supporting Arguments

While reading ‘The human Spark’ chapter of Yuval Noah Harari’s “Homo Deus” book, I bumped into some very interesting statements that adds more fuel to my theory.

“The crucial factor in our conquest of the world was our ability to connect many humans to one another”. This statement summarizes the essence of the human conquest of the world. Social media boom could also be attributed to this: Connecting to people whom you know, whom you used to know and whom you are about to know. No wonder the social networking platforms are ruling the world. These provide the necessary framework to hone the Sapiens’ innate ability to connect many humans to one another. Prior to this, we had limited group of people to connect to: Our family, colleagues, society, etc. With social networking, the world is at our disposal. Connection is the key.

“Homo Sapiens is the only species on earth capable of cooperating flexibly in large numbers”. Another powerful statement that answers why the Homo Sapiens rule the world. As the author rightly justifies: Ants and bees cooperate very well, but they lack flexibility. Elephants and chimpanzees cooperate flexibly, but their cooperation is based on personal acquaintance. Only Sapiens can cooperate flexibly with countless numbers of strangers. Its not just cooperation or flexibility, its about cooperating flexibly in large numbers!

“Victory almost invariably went to those who cooperated better”. This explains the domination of European colonizers in the 18th century and how a tiny island nation like the UK could rule over a massive population like India. Units that cooperate better and effectively can easily dominate the disorganized lots. Although humans generally cooperate flexibly in large numbers, within the human order, the group that cooperates better ends up victorious!

Although connecting to other humans is a unique Sapiens trait, it could sometimes turn out to be a curse: Like someone unable to connect to others ending up committing crimes or suicide. People love to connect. Problem arises when they cannot connect. Be it in professional or personal space. New folks joining companies need to find a “connect” with fellow colleagues & the company goal in general. The “connect” has to continue persisting with ever changing company & team dynamics. Without this, there is bound to be a lack of cooperation within the team. Lack of cooperation results in disastrous results. A good team is one that connects the team members to each other and to their team goal!

“Sapiens rule the world because only they can weave an intersubjective web of meaning: a web of laws, forces, entities and places that exist purely in their common imagination”. This is probably my favorite statement in the book. This explains the basis of human connect: A common imagination. Without this “Web of meaning” as the author interestingly refers it to, there is no sense of connection for a group. This common imagination gives each one of us a sense of belonging; We belong to a community, a town or city, a province, a country, work at so and so company, etc. The last one is particularly interesting. We cannot change where we are born, but we are free to choose the company we work for!

At a company, if all the team members share the same common imagination, in addition to believing that fellow teammates also likewise do, there is a “connect”. A sense of team spirit, leading to greater cooperation & finally great success to rule the world, figuratively speaking. Apart from the role specific acumen (which I think can always be honed), this holds much more significance in terms of forming “great” teams. A team that can flexibly cooperate with one another to succeed in elevating their common imagination could quite literally “conquer” the world!

Coming back to individual human interactions, working with a person could almost give you a headache. Discussions soon turning into arguments. But the same person seems different in personal space, much more enjoyable. Sometimes it’s a pleasure to work with certain colleagues, they are amazing at what they do & always help you out when required. But then the same person could be boring in personal meetings, with not much topics of common interest. Then there are people who annoy you both in professional & personal space. The final category, folks who are amazing at what they do & also enjoyable to spend personal time as well. All these individual human to human interaction, at both personal and professional level boils down to the shared common imagination.

A small caveat as we start gauging our colleagues: Remember that the categorization is relative to an individual or team. An individual could be “open” to a few and “closed” to others. So, in theory, a Category A person to one can possibly be a Category B person to another, depending on the common interests. What is relevant here is the “connection” within teammates. As far as the professional story goes, a person might feel more at home” in Company X or Team Y compared to Company Z or Team T. We cannot label a person as Category A or B on a global scale.

Conclusion

Between the personal and professional “connection”, for sure being professionally connected is more relevant as far as the company story is concerned. But people who “connect” well both professionally & personally can end up cooperating much better with greater flexibility, both at times of stress and celebration. How a team works together and delivers can largely be attributed to what kind of worker category the team members fall into.

• It goes without saying that a team comprised of entirely Category A workers is destined to be a great team, one that is very well knit and able to easily deliver results.
• Good team can also be formed with Category B workers, as they are still well knit professional unit. This team can still become better if more focus is given to personal bonding, maybe more team bonding sessions?
• Team having Category C workers might run into frequent issues like confrontations and miscommunication at work. Professional bonding sessions that can align the compasses could probably sort out potential issues, as the personal bonding is still good.
• Team with Category D workers needs serious re-wiring. This rarely makes a team, having no sense of common goal. Based on the situation, either the professional bonding should somehow be bettered or the personal one. In the worst case, disband this team.