Valley crossing - Teamwork Exercise

There are many ways to learn about team work and managing a team. But the last POM class brought an unconventional approach to it. Dr. Mandi asked us to perform valley crossing in a group of three. The scenario depicted how 3 people need to cross a valley, what difficulties they faced and how they overcome it with their team work and co-ordination. Worth a shot!

Scenario

• Three people need to cross a deep "valley".

• The distance between edges is more than one step but less than two steps.

• Jumping from one side to the other and walking on a pole placed on the two edges is dangerous.

• The only item they have with them is a small thick pole/stick.

All the three people have to undergo 3 stages namely:

• Safe - Both the legs of the person have full support

• Half Risky – One leg in the air and the other leg has support

•  Full risky - Both the legs are in the air without any support

Now if we divide the exercise into 9 sub tasks, we get:

For the exercise to be completed successfully, all three individuals were equally responsible for their end. Moreover, in various levels of this task the team members needed to consider the following aspects:

• Brainstorming: What should be exact position of holding the rod..?? Such reasoning will definitely help in better performance.

• Communication: It meant that the team mates discuss the problem and communicate their issues to the superiors as well as to their peers. They must have a clear understanding of the situation before attempting the task.

• Conflicts resolution among team member: Optimizing different opinion and come up with a most feasible solution and come up with one member that should lead the group.

• Clearly defined standards - Team members must know what is expected of them individually in quantitative terms and not qualitative and vague terms like "positive attitude" and "high growth", as these words are ambiguous in their meaning.
•  Commitment – “Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

What I learned from the class was:

• The essence of teamwork lies in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of every team member.

• Strategy and planning are futile without effective implementation.

• Mutual trust and belief are the foundation of a good team

• Every team member is accountable and responsible for the job at hand

• There has to be openness in terms of new ideas and suggestion