Saturday 31 May 2008

A Warm welcome!

The visit of our Product Manager who I had been very closely working for around a year and a half was here in the office and believe me the long days were productive and the environment refreshing... I am sure the Team also had a good time interacting with her and lerning more about what we are doing and plan to do.... However a few surprising things really made me worry about what we call as a "Warm Welcome".... while we were giving warm welcome to our product Manager we realised that a warm welcome is needed elsewhere too... where?

Here is a situation.... I come to office early morning , I see 2 new faces running around the floor full with 140 developers and qa engineers looking for a cubicle number... I saw them loitering around and thought of checking with what they were upto... just to the surprise I come to know that they are looking for a cubicle that actually lies in the same zone where our Team sits.. and he is not a part of the Team that we work with.... I ask em which Project / Product / Team / Manager.. to the surprise they only know one Name ...... "Godamnm". Confused over their places and the development they ask me to help them find something for them and after a few emails with the superceed and Team I come to know that Yes there is a change in attitude needed in the way you welcome the New Member to the Team....

At my previous lovely workplace a few months ago we had unique ways to introduce Team members... I dont know if it was followed before I joined in or not... but at least we made sure that the entire Team was called up when the introduction happened... slowly it evolved where the new joinees got the introduction from our Team members in unique styles and with lot of fun activities and jokes.... this wasnt enough.. we made the new joinee have a good hearty laugh... just to ensure that he feels a part of the family on the day he joins the Team....

Now why is it important to have a warm welcome?

Do you think the forming and norming will work if the new member stays in the team for weeks before anyone knows that he is a part of the team?

Do you think a new member would love when he has to find and work with a person for the next 7 days as his buddy?I remembered that recently 2 completely different personalities were made buddies and they did not even like to see their faces ;)

Team building is a process not an activity.... and the process needs to be defined , more importantly followed...How would a new member of your team value you or your team if he is not integrated well?

So next time if Arun's and Abhishek's get losts there needs to be a process to rich them into the Team...

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