Unit 2 – Week 5

In Colombia, we have this common expression – “ponerse la 10″ – which literally translates to putting on the number 10. It comes from football players who are the team captains and normally wear the number 10 on the back of their tshirt. This expression is used when someone takes action with an initiative, leads a group, or solves something people have been dreading. It basically means being someone who moves a situation forward.

You can hear it in every type of situation:

• In a group of friends when someone leaves the party to buy more beer for the group: “se puso la 10.”
• In a workplace, when someone goes to ask the boss if there’s going to be a raise this year: “se puso la 10.”
• Between siblings, when one decides and buys the present for their parents for Christmas: “se puso la 10.”

I’m normally someone who has that number 10 on their back. I like to be responsible and act fast with structure, so when I have teamwork, I tend to assume most of the tasks. That leads me to sometimes hating being the number 10 person because it translates into not an equitable division of labor. But then also, I wonder how much of that is self-imposed. For example, this week we had to prepare the final presentation. We all did our parts of the investigation, and the information looked good, but the design part of it looked bad – through my eyes. It seemed like someone grabbed the information and used AI to make the ppt, but it looked disarticulated. No one said anything about it, so I just said to myself and to the group, I’ll do it. I put on the 10 and redesigned it, but I was slightly annoyed that no one else offered. I didn’t mention that to my group because reflecting on it, they all have put on number 10 at different times, sometimes in tiny stuff that is not easily appreciated, and also because I quite enjoy doing ppts.

I think collaborative work is a constant state of wearing that number 10 on the back and doing stuff and also, sometimes letting someone else wear it. In general, I think that’s how we worked as a group. There was no particular tension but we handled and managed uncertainty with the tools we had, and I think we prospered into a good outcome.

I’m thankful for my group and these weeks.