Valley Crossing Exercise

Valley Crossing Exercise – Yet another exercise to understand management concepts!

 Famous Quotes:

Talent win games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships

                                                                                             – Michael Jordan

If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself

                                                                                               - Henry Ford

“Valley Crossing Exercise” is a very useful management exercise to understand the importance of teamwork. Teamwork is a mixture of action process, interpersonal process and transition period in between. Teamwork consists of leadership, team formation, team norms, outcome interdependence, competition and cooperation.

The following image clearly depicts why teamwork is so much useful and what it can lead to:

“Together Everyone Achieves More.”

As can be seen in the above image, when the multiple people work as part of a team, the overall output obtained is much higher than the one obtained by working individually.

Explanation of valley crossing exercise through a picture is as below:

Understanding from 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.

·              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.

Problem in hand

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.

Solution:

The following are the steps to be followed sequentially to complete the task.

·              Initially, the first person puts his leg forward and hid first foot remains in air and so he is only half safe. The remaining are fully safe.

·              The next step, the first person is totally unsafe and he has hang from the rod, which is being supported by the other two with their weight.

·              The next step, the first person puts its first foot on the other side of the valley and hence half safe again. The second person now puts his first foot in air and hence even he is half safe.

·              At the end of next step, the first person totally reaches the other end of the valley and hence is totally safe again. The second person is totally unsafe hanging in the air with the support of the rod weighted by the first and third persons.

·              Next step, the second person puts his first step on the other side of the valley and the third person puts his first step in the air and hence both are half safe.

·              At the end of next step, the third person reaches the other end of the valley and hence totally safe again. The third person remains hanging in the air supported by the first two persons who have reached the other end of the valley. 

·             After two more steps, even the third person reaches the other end of the valley and the mission has been accomplished

At one point of time each one of them will be in different situation either safe, half safe and fully unsafe. There come nine steps which they have to follow to cross the valley.  

Here is the diagram that shows  the nine steps required to complete this exercise:

Management lessons learnt from this exercise:

1.   Responsibility:

      Everyone in an organization should feel equally responsible to achieve the objectives of the organization. Task can only be completed successfully if everyone in the team works collectively and in a responsible way.

2.   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.

3.   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.

4.   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.

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.   Defined roles and responsibilities:

      Roles and responsibilities need to be clearly defined for each and every individual in an organization since then, they will be aware of the kind of work that is expected from them. Valley crossing exercise was successful since each member knew when to move their leg (either left or right) and that it should be in sync with the other members of the team.

7.   Coordinative relationship:

      Signifies the bond between the team members to allow them to seamlessly coordinate their work to achieve both efficiency and effectiveness.

8.   Interdependent Task:

      It is the extent to which a member of the team needs to interact with the other team members to complete the work. As in the valley crossing exercise, it was of utmost importance for a member to be interdependent on other members so as to mitigate the risk and complete the task in hand.

      Interdependent task becomes more crucial once we go higher up the corporate ladder. It becomes more important to work with the team, take their inputs and consider their expertise/skills/opinions.

9.   No scope for “social loafing”:

There is no scope for social loafing while working in a team. Everyone is expected to work to achieve the set objectives.