Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By
SIX
6 SIGMA
Navdeep Dahiya
0121pg005
Bhumil Rastogi
0121pg011
Mrityunjay Pandey
0121pg059
Kundan Kumar
0121pg032
Manoj Kajla
0121pg038
Ajay K Raina
0121pg014
It is past two now; that time of the night when sleep challenges everyone. There has been
no change in enemys stance. He appears desperate and frustrated. Intensity of fire has increased
manifolds and firing of small arms is drawing closer and closer. Sleep or no sleep, nerves are now
getting delicate with every passing moment. The team leader is anticipating some trouble that
generally comes in such situations where action is quite expected and eagerly awaited but it flirts
with you rather than indulging with you. Panic, riding on anxiety, is likely to creep in under such
circumstances. And that is what the team leader is apprehensive about.
0215h: Two tugs on the rope, repeated only once, indicate appearance of enemy on to
teams left but still some distance away. Everyone is now alert. Fingers have moved to the triggers
and barrels are now pointing at the pre-selected landmarks that can be seen under all conditions of
visibility. By doing that, weapons stand automatically aligned to the killing ground that, per se, is not
clearly visible at the moment. A sortie of fighters flies overhead and heavy small arms noises break
out in distance. Stage is now set for the rendezvous that comes in the life of a soldier only once or
twice and about which every man in uniform dreams of.
0217h: A communication is received on the radio set held with the team leader. He is not
able to hear it clear because of on-going ruckus but once he is sure about the message, his heartbeat
increases. For the first time in years, he is feeling the reckless speed at which certain nerves in a
human body tend to wobble. The message from the base indicates that another team from a
neighbouring unit had lost its way and may be headed in the direction where this team is deployed.
It translates into an ugly situation wherein the troops, heading towards the killing ground, are as
likely to be friendly as they are likely to be foe. With the state of internal communications and the
fact that even if the troops walking into the ambush may be friendly, any unwarranted action at this
point is sure to extract a violent response from other side, thus, causing fratricide, team leader is in a
dilemma. Chances of fratricide by either side, in case they are own forces, are equal and 50% in the
best case. Chances of buying causalities while attempting to establish identity of the incoming group
were also as high. Needless to say that actual identity of the other group notwithstanding, even their
fingers would also be on the triggers of their weapons. This is, what they call, a Catch 22 situation.
0219h: Two tugs on the rope, but repeated numerous times, indicate presence of enemy
within less than 50 metres. There is no cushion left now. A decision, good, bad or ugly, has to be
taken immediately. And the experienced soldier does take a decision at this moment. He has
decided to hold the fire and not to open shooting before the incoming team is positively identified as
foe. He would first do, what is called, Identification of Friend-Foe Drill. Such a decision can turn out
to be a great one or pure disaster and that only time can tell. As of now, the insurmountable
problem is as to how he communicates it to the other members of the team. He is in the rough
centre of his team. If he sends his buddy to tell other team members to hold their fire, chances of his
buddy getting killed by enemy troops are as high as those of him getting knocked down by own
troops.
0220h: Even though it is pitch dark, team leader can see the silhouette of a man walking
towards killing ground that lay in front of the former. Sounds of footfalls are now clearly audible too.
This also means that leading men of the incoming team have already crossed the point where first
buddy pair of own team is deployed. In other words, time is now ripe for a meaningful kill. In army
parlance, as shown in the movies originating the world over, FIRE means an executive order to
open fire. In our country, Hindi is the prime language used between leaders and men while training
for such eventualities. It is all racing in team leaders mind. They say, all your years of experience and
training come back flashing under such circumstances. The first man of the incoming team is now
directly in front of him, separated by a distance less than 25 metres and a tree trunk behind which
the team leader has deployed himself. And suddenly, the team leader shouts, Mat Karna Fire; Apne
ho Sakte Hain and in the next breath, he throws the challenge to the incoming team as per the
standard identification drill. There are some sudden movements; troops in front dash down and hug
the mother earth as per the training manual. The youngsters sitting in the ambush are stopped at
the last moment by their senior partners and fingers, though on triggers, do not move a whisker.
There is a pin drop silence and suddenly a voice shouts from the opposite direction. It brings in the
first part of the password for that particular night. The team leaders response brings the
complementary part of the password and suddenly, nerves cool down as if someone has just pulled
out the main plug. What follows is a big relief among two teams. And as both teams, now united,
redeploy in ambush once again, the team leader just closes his eyes and thinks what would have
happened had he decided to shoot straightway or worse, had he shouted, Fire Mat Karna; Apne Ho
Sakte Hain.
POINTS TO PONDER
1.
What, in your view, are the barriers to communication in the giving setting? And why?
2.
Even though it was more of a compulsion, was the system of using a thin rope to
communicate within the team adequate and fool proof? Please elucidate.
2.
What stands out as the quality in the team leader when it comes to communication in this
particular situation? Justification?
3.
What, as per your assessment, could have happened had he actually used, Fire Mat Karna;
Apne Ho Sakte Hain despite all his good intentions? Any guesses and reasoning thereof?
NOTES
The focus, as per our perception, needs to be laid on the following issues:(a)
(b)
Physical barriers.
(c)
(d)
(e)
Alertness (on part of the team leader) while receiving an important message from
the base amidst battle noises and distractions. Any other interpretation could have led to a
disaster.
(g)
Conflicting Messages when we compare clear cut instructions given during the preoperation briefing and the strict order that needs to be issued after a prompt decision has
been taken.
(h)
Avoidance of use of long chain of communication by opting to shout rather than
sending a runner to inform everyone, thereby, endangering the safety of the latter.
(j)
Innovation to overcome adverse barriers to communication by careful selection of
words and that too under stress of a very high order.
(k)
Courage to take a calculated risk since there was a major feedback barrier (there
was no time and no one was expected to respond in any other way except by executing the
order) that would have prevented the acknowledgement of message and its correct receipt.
The hypothetical situation, wherein use of Fire Mat Karna; Apne Ho Sakte Hain is required
to be predicted, needs to be related to routine training vocabulary, and thus, to language barrier. It
would have, therefore, resulted in shooting because troops under pressure and in a near jittery state
of mind would have opened fire on hearing the first word, Fire itself and without leaving any scope
for rest of the sentence to reach anyone due to noise of bullets.