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) village Munish understood that Munjal could not be ignored.
Munish knew from his 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.
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.

group members. Ten years back, Sakharam, after successfully completing his High School
Leaving Certificate (HSC) examination had joined GSS as a
He was confident that Rajesh Srivastava the expert on marketing
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 Sakaram all of 30 is
relatively younger compared to other 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
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
Sakharamlevel 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