The individual and the collective

An interesting anecdote from an interview I heard with Paddy Upton, the former mental conditioning coach of the Indian men’s cricket squad.

When he began working with the squad, Anil Kumble was the captain of the Test squad, and Dhoni was the captain of the ODI team. In a bid to get all players to be on time for team meetings and practice sessions for the Test squad, Kumble said that any player who was late would be charged a fine of 10,000 rupees.

For the ODI team, Dhoni tweaked the same rule a little—whenever a player was late, everyone else was levied a fine of 10,000 rupees. It was a great way to tell players that their actions affected the entire team and not just them.

When you think of how your actions affect others, you see through a different lens.