The problem started with Mr. Munjal. Mr.

Munjal has been an irrigation engineer with the

government department. He took voluntary retirement after serving his department for about 22
years. He is in his mid-forties and had joined GSS for this project. The reason behind leaving his
service was his desire to serve the poor. He is extremely good in his area of expertise, (i.e.
Irrigation) and has very high level of initiative. After he had joined, Munish had lot of respect for
him and would look forward to his advice. However, after about six months he discovered that in
meetings of the team, Mr. Munjal either dominated the discussions of the group or withdraws
entirely. At times, he would withhold important information from the group or get down to
passing sarcastic comments. Munish realised; Munjal had a dynamic personality and a brilliant
mind, albeit a sharp tongue. In every meeting, for at least once, he would come up with a brilliant
idea, which would keep other group members enthralled. His knowledge about the watershed
management, check dams was unparalleled. Munish understood that Munjal could not be ignored.
Munish knew from his Institute days that successful team building is part art, part science. He
also believed that with full commitment from all the members, a team becomes more than the
sum of its parts. Out of the five new members that had joined his team, he expected trouble from
Sakharam. Sakaram all of 30 is relatively younger compared to other group members. Ten years
back, Sakharam, after successfully completing his High School Leaving Certificate (HSC)
examination had joined GSS as a village level worker and has worked his way up in the
organisation through hard labour. In-between he has completed his graduation through distance
learning with active encouragement and support from Ms. Trishna Singh. He does not have a
professional degree to boast but fills in the gap through his strong native intelligence. He is
regarded as a hard-core rural development worker in the organisation. His expertise is in
establishing quick rapport with villagers and organising communities – he relates to the villagers
as no one in the team could. In village meetings he displayed his sharpness by deciphering many
signals emanated from the villagers as in most cases villagers would not articulate their views
directly. His understanding of the grassroots dynamics helped the team in placing needs of the
villagers in proper perspective. If anyone knew the modalities of entering into a village and
organising a village meeting, whether it is with women’s groups or male groups, it was he.
Sakharam usually did not speak much. Munish had thought that the team atmosphere might
overawe him because of his lack of articulation and educational background.
He was confident that Rajesh Srivastava the expert on marketing