Valley Crossing - A lesson in team building

This blog is about the lesson learnt about teamwork through a valley crossing exercise. In this case there is a valley which cannot be crossed by an individual alone because it is 2 steps wide. Now the exercise shows how if 3 people come together and a pole of sufficient length is provided using innovative thinking all 3 people can cross the valley.

So the situation is a very simple demonstration of what organizations do, they form a group of individuals to attain goals beyond the reach of any one person and to attain that they need resources (here a pole) and innovative thinking.

But this is not all only having a team and resources is not enough to be a successful organization there are many more things which need to fall in place to attain success. What these parameters are I learnt through a simple valley crossing exercise and would share those learning with you in this post.

Execution and Analysis of the Solution :

 Before starting with the analysis of the solution, I would like to describe the meaning of the states that I would be using :

·         Safe State : Safe state is the one in which both the feet of the person are on the ground and he is in no danger.

·         Half Risky: Half Risky is the state in which one leg is in the air and the other one on the ground

·         Full Risky: Full risky is the state in which both the legs of the man are in air and his body weight is supported by the other two men.

Persons	First Person	Second Person	Third person
Steps
1	Safe	Safe	Safe
2	Half Risky
3	Full Risky
4	Half Risky	Half Risky
5		Full Risky
6		Half Risky	Half Risky
7			Full Risky
8			Half Risky
9	Safe	Safe	Safe

Learning:

1)      Simplicity of Design

      First thing to notice here is that how a very complex problem has been simplified. Because of this simplification what would otherwise have been a daunting problem seems quite possible now. Hence it is very important for a manager to simplify a problem as much as possible because it gives confidence to the team on its achievability. Many modern organizations like Apple and Philips are highly successful because of simplicity i design and usage of their products.

2)      Goal Statement

      It is necessary to have a goal statement because it provides a sense of purpose and existence to the stakeholders. Here the goal statement is clearly defined as “Crossing the Valley” so all team members are focussed and using their energy in attainment of that purpose. Some organization define their purposes vaguely and employees in such organization are found to be hard working but not unified or scattered in means to achieve their goals.

3)      Load Distribution

   

      In an organization it is important that all employees are on equal footing and equally responsible for the optimum performance of the company. This would ensure that pride and ego issues do not creep up. In the example all three persons are equally responsible and hence work as a team to attain the goal.

4)      Unity of Direction

      

      It means that all people and department in an organization should be clear about the way they want to achieve the set goal. This is important to prevent any undue wastage of organizations energy and resources on unimportant or unrelated activities.

5)      Innovative Thinking

     

      Innovation is at the heart for long term sustainability of any organization more so in contemporary world where technology is causing sweeping changes in people’s priority and preferences. In the Valley Crossing Example the team showed innovation by finding out a method to cross the valley, organizations are supposed to find out innovative solutions for the problems that the world faces, Khan Academy is one such organization about which we discussed in one of my earlier posts.

6)      Trust and dependability

      Organization is a group of people and for them to work together in an effective manner it is indispensible without trust and dependability. In the current example all member of the team are in danger of falling in the valley at such situation it is the trust and dependability which pushes them to go through. It is important for a manager to foster trust and dependability among his team members to attain great results.

7)      Proper Communication

      Inefficient communication in an organization can lead to disastrous results such as delayed delivery, poor quality such incidents can lead to public embarrassment and even loss of order for the company. In the Valley Crossing Example the need for proper communication between the team is evident, if there is improper communication it can lead to loss of life.

8)      Synchronization 

      

      Synchronization is the sequence of events which are to be followed together or one after the other. In the valley crossing example there has to be complete synchronization between the steps of the team to ensure that the gap between them does not reduce or increase as it has to be maintained according to the width of the valley. Similarly for managers it is important to let their team know the time frame in which a certain task has to be completed and accordingly when related activities should be completed by employees.

9)      Training

      Last but one of the most important aspects is training your employees. Without proper training an average employee cannot become good and a good employee cannot be great. Imagine if the team members in the valley crossing exercise were asked to cross the valley without practice and training. They would have been low on self confidence and most probably they would have failed in the task. This is a important message for managers sometimes in our usual daily routine we don’t see the need for training the employees fearing loss of productivity for that period but this situation is detrimental in long term for overall growth of organization and employee, who after some time would feel no growth in personal and professional life.