in the game and is considered to be out of the game for that turn. I had some pre conceived notions about my eight friends that were playing with me. But during and after the game, I realised that majority of them, six to be precise did not behave the way I thought, they would attributed by their personality. Though, the cooperative part asked for cooperation so my friends did the same. But, six of my friends acted selfishly during the game when they had to save one person as a doctor and they saved themselves. I could not expect such behaviour prior to the game. Their behaviour in general was quite meek and helpful. Surprisingly, my best friend did not cooperate with me during the game at times when his purpose was not getting solved in the game. The remaining two behaved in synchronisation with their personality traits. I gauged them as the wisest in the group and they showed the same, when at the end of the game they turned out to be the clear winners winning 5 times each, out of the total 11 times. They showcased their prudence while deciding upon whom to save and whom to kill which could help them in winning. They moved throughout the game smartly, gaining the confidence of others when dialogues regarding who the mafia is, at the end of each turn, were organised. Nobody could pin pointthem as mafias, when they actually were. So, I found out that the behaviours were pretty different during the game from the real based scenarios, as observed by me.
These assessments of personality traits of my friends helped me to understand that behaviours are based on the situation majorly accompanied with the specific characteristic traits. Obviously, the influence of one’s personality will be present while he/she makes a decision but people also take other things into consideration. These can include the repercussions of their actions, the direction in which their move will take them to, different probabilities, background knowledge and other related aspects (Dominguez, 2009). We might judge people to have personality traits that we might have observed while being with them or how they influenced the actions that relate to us directly or indirectly. But a personality is more than just his behavioural aspects. I think that a person accounts for many things before doing anything. This shows that our perception about ourselves can be contradictory with other’s view about ourselves. That doesn’t pin point either of us to be wrong.
Considering the initial turn of the game, I played the role of the godfather. I decided to be the godfather intentionally to look at the playing style of each of my friends and then play the real game having assessed each one of them and gaining the knowledge about the game, precisely. As, the roles to be played in the game in a single turn are solely based on the chits, my best friend played the role of the police. My friend Sam played the role of a doctor. My friends Katy and Tomas played the role of mafias. The rest four friends played the role of the commoners for that turn. For that turn, I observed that Sam acted selfishly when only one commoner and he himself were left along with the two mafias. Obviously, the two mafias could not have killed themselves and they killed my commoner friend, unluckily. If Sam had saved the commoner he would have been saved but at that part Sam wanted to be in the game so he acted this way. Later in the turn in which my best friend and I became the two mafias, my best friend did not cooperate with me in deciding whom to kill. Our thoughts collidedwith each other. So, whatever we planned initially did not work well in the game. Even my pre assessed notions of friends turned out to be wrong to a great extent. I concluded after the game, that in such a competitive game, no planning can work soundly as the participants would cat in a way that saves them and in turn would be helpful to them in winning the game eventually.
After the game, I introspected and found out that even I was selfish in the game. Though I tried to be cooperative with my friend and when there was a clash in our opinions I accepted his decision. Even my first action in the game, the choice of being the godfather in the first turn, so as to know about how each of my friend played, signals that I was selfish. The word selfish might not be apt. I think everybody in the game was competitive and had the spirit to win the game. As we all played individually in the game, we all were trying our best to confuse others so that they could not gauge the mafias when actually we were the mafias in our particular turns. Temporarily, I felt irritable when my best friend was trying to force his decision on me, but I acted maturely and let his choice be acknowledged. I found out that I was way mature than I earlier thought. I found out that I could be impatient when people were not paying heed to what I was speaking, I could be irritable at my best friend for not cooperating with me and going with the plan. Most importantly, I could cheat my friends just to win a mere game. I was similar in a way that I also wanted to win. Though there was a lot of difference in me while playing the game when compared with the real me. I was happy in seeing my friends win the game that I thought to be the wisest amongst us all.
I learnt that my best friend was too goal driven. Firstly, he did not abide by the plan that we had decided upon prior to the game completely. Additionally, he was too curious to know who the real mafias were in each turn. I learnt that he could be so impatient that he even shouted at me when I did not give him his chit. He was never so persuasive, the way he showed while playing the game. I could never imagine that he had such excellent ability ofpersuading others to believe in his lies. This was evident two times during the game when he was the mafia and he cleverly, through is wit and art of communication, threw the blame of being the mafia on my other friends. He made me wonder, what actually was cooking in his mind. He was certainly unpredictable throughout, at least for me.
While the game was played I think we could have just played the game for recreation than for the purpose of winning the game. A spirit of playing and more importantly, team playing shows the helpful and cooperative side of a person. We all were too competitive in the game which could have been bought to a lesser level. Consequently, our cooperation would not have led to the petty tussles and annoyances that we all observed in each of us during the game (Greenlaw, 2009).
I think that most importantly, the spirit of oneness and brotherhood is important. Realising that the company of others is important in every endeavour of ours would create a balanced environment around us. Positivity leads to the best outcomes that are attributed with efficiency and a great deal of individualistic performance. Individualistic goals should never undermine the team work (Potter, 2011). Businesses excel through team works as they need it to the core. Better and sustained communications in a team will result in transparency and better knowledge of the team’s processes, strategies, future plans, changes, etc. A business should ensure team work and joint efforts in the team with effective communications. For this purpose, having a competent and wise team leader is crucial who understands the key points and virtues himself. He should be able to come up with smart instant and feasible solutions in cases of abrupt problems and ensure that the communication lines are open sustainably. Cooperation from people can be gained through workshops for demonstrating the pros of a strategy that has team work as its basic support structure. Such guidance to the team members can also be provided by the team leader. He should solve the ego problems and attitude issues if any of these is located in the team. Timely appreciations by the team members and theauthorities also help in setting up a cooperative environment (Blum , 2008). Enjoying the small successes of the teams and the individual employees, helps in gaining a consistent success scenario. Teams, individuals, managers and team leaders can be awarded for achieving their goals. Organisations can also organise outings and other activities that make it possible for the team and the employees of the organisation to interact and to know each other well. A positive, well balanced and ego free environment is needed to map cooperation with the reality.
As an example, if there is a person who doesn’t perform well in teams. It is observed that his individual performance is much better than his performances while being in a team. He is ‘difficult’ in a sense that he gets annoyed when his decision or suggestion or idea is not acknowledged by the team. For getting cooperation from such a person he would be guided by me. A short clip on how the big shots in the market have achieved success to be the names they are, today, will be shown to him. He would be demonstrated the benefits of being a team player. I would organise a short session for the team that the person currently belongs to and would be introduced with his co-workers again. This time the co-workers will introduce themselves to the person along with a closing sentence that tells one positive aspect of the person. This would help create positivity