Decoding the Valley crossing exercise

Having a talented individual can produce results only partly. For a complete solution/success, we need strong teams. That is why Organisations prefer a Team worker to an individual contributor even if the latter one is much more talented, because it increases reliability, flexibility and sustainability. There may be cases when that particular person is unavailable, simulated by hanging man in valley crossing exercise. Suddenly there may be some huge workload (two person carrying weight of pole and 3^rd person) or a new work may come where the same person may not be competent enough.

Every manager knows the power of Teamwork. In fact the very existence of a manager can be attributed to creation of Teams.  The following Valley Crossing exercise is telling the same story.

Understanding of the exercise:

·         Three people who are one side of a valley have to cross the valley using a rod. The gap between the valleys is more than one step long but less than two steps. At any time, all the three people have to hold the rod and using synchronous movements cross the valley.

·         Any person, while on top of the valley (the “risky” position to be in) will be supported by other two people. All the three members here have interchanging roles in the completion of task. As can be noticed in the above image, all the three members have equal distribution of risky, half-risky and safe situations.

·         The success of this exercise will depend upon how closely the three people work as part of a team, coordinate and communicate with each other through sound/signals and follow a synchronous movement

With all the strategies & processes in place we went ahead with the execution. But while executing we found that the Trust factor is missing which is the key ingredient in team building. Furthermore the Unity of Command a key ingredient for team success was not adhered to.

Apart from the necessity of teamwork this exercise showcased the need of following lessons too:-

1.Involvement: - Employee involvement, teams, and employee empowerment enable people to make decisions about their work. This employee involvement, team building approach, and employee empowerment increases loyalty and fosters ownership.

2.Neo-classical Tool of Management:- This simple demonstration actually leads us to some wonderful concepts of neo-classical management. Unlike classical theory of management, wherein the roles are delegated in a pyramid-like manner as to ensure unity of command, neo-classical theory speaks about empowerment of the employees. Here underlies the concept of matrix structures of organizations, where the groups are self-managed and everyone is capable of making decisions.

3. 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.

4.Need of Communication: For the successful completion of the task, it is very important to have proper communication and feedback mechanism. In fact, the feedback mechanism is instantaneous and hence of paramount importance.