Valley Crossing Exercise

Famous Quotes:

Talent win games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships – Michael Jordan

This adage stands crystal clear in terms of explaining the significance of team work.

And in my below blog, I am trying the converge on the same line which Michael Jordan said and this is done with the illustration of famous management concept – Valley crossing by 3 workers

This is an exercise done by 3 workers while crossing the valley while carrying the load of rod. To experience the team work, simulation of this activity was done in our class where group of students tried crossing the valley and the class was analyzing the processes involved and their implications.

From the demonstration, we were able to figure out 9 steps which were classified as Risky, Half Risky and Safe as shown in the table.  As we can see there are 3 risky steps, so the ultimate goal of organization is to eliminate these risks.

Below are the management lessons learnt from this exercise:

1.       Responsibility:

      Goals of an individual within the organization should be aligned with an organizational goal. Task can only be completed successfully if everyone in the team works collectively and in a responsible way.

2.  Shared vision:

      It is important to have a shared vision, which is clear and informs about where the organization wants to head in the future. Vision needs to be shared with all the members of the organization so as to enable the members to work collectively in achieving the organization’s defined goal.

3. Planning:

    Proper planning is required to be done for initiating any task so that the task is completed on time. In the valley crossing exercise, the plan was already formulated by the team members in the way they would cross the valley (take 9 steps with alternate and synchronous movement of left and right leg). The plan should be focused on how we can leverage our strength as a team.

4. Communication: 

    Effective communication is very much essential for the success of the team and the organization and as it has been proven in this exercise. Synchronous movements by communicating with each other through sounds/skills were very much essential for the success of this exercise.

5. Trust:

    Organizations cannot be successful if there is no element of trust in it. As in the case of valley exercise, a person was ready to cross the valley while being in a “risky” and “half-risky” state only because he/she trusted the other members in the team. Similarly, in an organization, managers and employees need to trust each other.

6. Load Sharing:

    Ultimately, as this is a team work, everyone in the team must stand upfront in terms of sharing the load. This infests the quality of cooperation which will help to sustain and sail the team through all phases.