MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS LEARNT FROM VALLEY CROSSING:

Valley Crossing:
There are three people trying to cross a valley. The gap of the valley is in the range of one foot to two feet. Assume that each of them has the same footstep. They have a rod of a convenient size and they have to cross the valley using the rod as a support. Direct jumping is considered fatal assuming the valley is fathomless.

Task:Three persons should cross the valley using a long stick.

Now the task can be solved in two ways:

1)Place the stick such that it acts like a bridge between the valleys and each member individually goes on it to reach the other side.

2)All the team members should hold and rest the stick on their shoulder and while one member is crossing the valley the other two should balance it.

If we properly analyze the two methods the first one seems to be very risky and the chance of completing the task is very less. Here we come across another important aspect of management called Planning. In any organization even if we have all the resources to complete a task but there is no proper planning we cannot do anything with our resources but drain them. So one point we should note is

                                    "The beauty of management lies in planning"

Now in the second method we can see that as a team the three members can perform the task effectively with proper understanding and effective communication among themselves.The picture below gives an idea about the process.

There are totally 9 steps involved in completing the task and the step by step procedure can be seen in the picture below.

Now from the steps we can see that 

All three member roles are similar but not same and are equivalent in terms of total effort and risk.

All three member roles have equal distribution of 

a)   Risky (1) situations  

b)  Half risky (2) situations

c)   No risk (2) situations

All three member roles are designed equally strong and responsible.

All three members were equal contributors for the overall task and the communication and feedback among the members was instantaneous.Interdependence among the three member roles was made crucial.So we can see that difficult tasks can be completed effectively when there is a proper planning and teamwork which is the main reason for this task to get completed, gives us the idea about how important it is in an organization to work in teams and achieve the organizational goals.

Management Concepts Learnt:

Team Work:

The three members worked as part of a team and accomplished the goal of crossing the valley. In the whole exercise, at any point of time someone is either half safe or completely unsafe. Also, the number of times someone is either unsafe or half safe is same for all the three members. This shows that they should believe in each other and should develop a sense of mutual trust to complete the task successfully. The following are the characteristics that were followed in the valley crossing and are essential for team work.

• Open and clear communication – Communication is the key to crossing valley effectively.
• Mutual trust – Every person needed to trust each other completely especially when their feet was off the ground.
• Managing conflict – dealing with conflict openly and transparently and not allowing grudges to build up and destroy team morale.
• Clear goals – The goals were clear, defined and each member in the team fully understood the gravity of the problem.
• Defined roles and responsibilities – each team member understands what they must do (and what they must not do) to demonstrate their commitment to the team and to support team success. Furthermore the roles and  responsibilities keep on changing depending on the situation.
• Co ordination relationship – the bonds between the team members allow them to seamlessly coordinate their work to achieve both efficiency and effectiveness.
• Positive atmosphere – an overall team culture that is open, transparent, positive, future-focused and able to deliver success.