THE SONDEO: A TEAM RAPID SURVEY APPROACH Peter E. Hildebrand
Several characteristics are critical to an efficient and functioning multidisciplinary effort: first, those concerned must be well trained in their own field; secondly, they need a working understanding of -- and must not be afraid to make contributions in -- one or more other fields. Team members must not feel the need to defend themselves and their field from intrusion by others. Working together, all members of the team should view the final product as a joint effort in which all have participated and for which all are equally responsible. That means that each must be satisfied with the product, given the goals of the team, and be willing and able to defend it.
Perhaps the most critical characteristic required to achieve success in a multidisciplinary team is this identification with a
single product in which all participate. The product can be complex and involve a number of facets, but it should result from the joint effort of the whole team and not contain strictly identi~iable parts attributable to individual team members. Failures of multidisciplinary efforts in agricultural institutions frequently result because teams are organized as comittees that meet occasionally to "coordinate" efforts, but in which the crop
work is left to the agronomists, the survey to the anthropologists, and the desks to the economists. In these cases there is not a single identified product but, rather, several products or reports purported to be concerned with the same problem.
THE SONDEO: A TEAM RAPID SURVEY APPROACH
The Sondeo is a modified survey technique developed by the Guatemalan Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology (ICTA) as a response to budget zestrictions time requirements, and the other methodology utilized, to augment information in a region where agricultural technology generation and promotion is being initiated.
In order to understand the methodology, it is first necessary to understand how ICTA is organized at the regional level. Each of the regions in which the Institute functions has a Regional Director who is the representative of the Director General of the Institute and of the Technical Director. Within the region, each area in which work is being carried out is in the charge of a "sub-regional delegate," a technician who has a minimum amount of administrative responsibilities. All the technicians, from whatever discipline or program, who work in the area are responsible to him. This multidisciplinary team is usually comprised of some or all of the following: plant
breeders, pathologists, a socioeconomist, and approximately four general agronomists who are the Technology Testing Team. This group, backed up by the national coordinators of programs (corn, beans, etc.) and support disciplines socioeconomicss, soil management) are responsible for orienting and conducting the
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