Team Building Committee

As the title indicates this seminar will explore what a team actually is and by default what a team is not. We will also examine how Srila Prabhupada was a transcendental team builder and how following in his footsteps we can build teams to strengthen and enhance his mission. We will look closely at what the basic characteristics and essentials of a good team are. As this will be an introductory seminar to assist those who did not attend previous ILS functions, we will welcome any question related to team building, however rudimentary! Anyone who has taken the introductory course previously, are recommended to take the other three available courses.

As with every endeavor in life you can have the enthusiasm, the good intent, the training and all the theoretical knowledge you need but if you don’t have sufficient tools to compliment all of the other attributes, you will be greatly hampered! Therefore, this particular seminar will introduce the participants to a wide variety of exercises and devices that will greatly help you in your efforts to both explain the importance of teamwork as well as helping you to build effective teams. Whether that be for your temple, your sankirtan party, your restaurant crew, your pujari department or any other group of devotees you work with on a regular basis.

As much as Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura is associated with the philosophy of acintya bheda abheda tattva, Srila Prabhupada is similarly associated with the philosophy of unity in diversity. As devotees we all want to be united, thus having a unified movement that can successfully continue the mandate given to us by Srila Prabhupada. Of course unity can only be achieved if we are able to embrace diversity and that has consistently proven to be a real challenge for us. This seminar will thus explore how best to deal with diversity within teams either those teams you choose, or potentially even more problematic, teams that you inherit. This seminar will extensively deal with both. Managing such diversity is a key building block to creating a successful and dynamic team.

We are of the fervent view that a code of honor is an essential component of any successful team. Throughout the history of the world there are unlimited examples of how groups of united and determined people have achieved successes way beyond the sum of their individual parts. The prime common denominator for such success is having a code of honor, which is simply not optional, it is compulsory. Every great team, culture, society, religion or business that has endured time, adversity and challenge has always had one thing in common: a set of simple but powerful codes that govern the internal behaviors and expectations of that group. It is called Their Code of Honor. We hear of these codes when we think of things like The Ten Commandments, the Hippocratic Oath, Ten Precepts of Buddhism, The Bushido etc. However, developing such a code is both an art and a science. If the process used for developing a code is faulty then the code produced will be equally compromised. This seminar will guide the students on how to create an effective and robust code of honor.