Valley Crossing: The power of Teamwork

In this blog I am going to explain the lessons learnt through valley crossing activity which was conducted by Prof. Dr. T. Prasad in the class. There is a valley which cannot be crossed by an individual alone because it is two steps wide. The activity showed us how the valley can be crossed by all three people using innovative thinking if they come together and a pole of sufficient length is provided to them.

This is a schematic of valley crossing activity-

Here is a snapshot of our valley crossing activity-

Now let’s look at step by step process of valley crossing-

This situation is very similar to what happens in an organization. In an organization group of individuals is formed & goal is set beyond the reach of any one person and to attain that they need resources which are the pole and innovative thinking in our activity.

Some lessons which I learnt through this activity-

1) Goal Statement-

 Goal provides a sense of purpose behind any task. Here the goal was clearly defined as “Crossing the Valley” so all team members were focussed and used their energy in attainment of that goal. Some organizations define their goals vaguely so even though employees are hard working, the team fails to achieve the goal.

2) Innovative Thinking-

Innovation is at the heart of any organization for long term sustainability, more so in contemporary world where technology is causing sweeping changes in people’s priority and preferences. In the Valley Crossing activity the team showed innovation by finding out a method of using a pole to cross the valley.

3) Load Distribution-In the activity two people shared the load of third person who was at risk. In an organization it is important that all employees are on equal footing and share the responsibility for the optimum performance of the company. This would ensure that pride and ego issues do not creep up. 

4) Unity of direction-

It means that all people in the team should be clear about the way they want to achieve the goal. This is important to prevent any undue wastage of organizations energy and resources on unimportant or unrelated activities.

  5) Proper Communication-

In an organization, inefficient communication can lead to disastrous results such as delayed delivery or even loss of order for the company. In our valley crossing activity if there would have not been a proper communication, it would have led to loss of life.

      6) Synchronization-

      Synchronization is the sequence of events which are to be followed together or one after the other. In the valley crossing example, due to synchronization the team members could ensure that the gap between them would be maintained equal to width of the valley. Similarly for managers it is important to let their team know the time frame in which a certain task has to be completed and accordingly when related activities should be completed by employees.

7) Trust & Dependability-

Organization is a group of people and without trust and dependability it is impossible for people to work together. In the activity all members of the team were in danger of falling in the valley.  It was the trust and dependability which pushed them to go through. Manager should foster trust and dependability among his team members to attain great results.




Thank you for reading! Please bless me with your valuable comments!

Three Monks : Many managerial lessons

This post is about very famous Chinese animated film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio & has won many accolades. The film has many lessons for managers. Please go through this short film for better understanding of its learnings.

Summary of the story-

A young monk lives a simple life in a temple on top of a hill. He has one daily task of hauling two buckets of water up the hill. He tries to share the job with another monk, but the carry pole is only long enough for one bucket. The arrival of a third monk prompts everyone to expect that someone else will take on the chore. Consequently, no one fetches water though everybody is thirsty. At night, a rat comes to scrounge and then knocks the candle-holder, leading to a devastating fire in the temple. The three monks finally unite together and make a concerted effort to put out the fire. Since then they understand the old saying "unity is strength" and begin to live a harmonious life. The temple never lacks water again.

The film is based on the ancient Chinese proverb "One monk will shoulder two buckets of water, two monks will share the load, but add a third and no one will want to fetch water”.

The film teaches us various aspects that impact the performance, productivity of employees in an organization, in turn impacting the growth of an organization.

Below is an analysis based on the film-

	One monk	Two monks	Three monks
How do they do it?
Tools involved	A stick and two buckets of water	A stick and a bucket of water	A Pulley, two buckets of water and a rope
Efforts put in	Maximum	Lesser	Least
Efficieny	Least	More	Maximum

Now let’s understand managerial lessons in the film:

1. Productivity & Efficiency - Productivity is a measure of how well an operation system functions. In previous post I have explained about this important equation:

Excellence = Effectiveness X Efficiency

The film talks about the importance of efficiency. Efficiency can be described by productivity ratio which is Total output / Total input.

One of the important functions of a manager is to optimize the process, improve the work design and try to aim for the most efficient process.  Managers should always come up with innovative solutions to improve efficiency. 

2. Teamwork & Cooperation:

We saw that even with increase in the number of monks the productivity came down drastically due to lack of cooperation.

Without Cooperation: One monk fetches two buckets of water, two monks fetch one bucket of water and three monks fetch no water at all.

With cooperation: Three monks increased the efficiency of the process to a level previously unattainable.

In a team, a member may try to avoid responsibility and expect from others. Manager should understand and inculcate the importance of teamwork and how cooperation and sharing of load can help improving productivity.

3. Participative Management: It is the practice of empowering employees to participate in organizational decision making. As in case of a movie, while dividing the load of the bucket one monk did the scaling and the other did marking. It involves both the parties in decision making and avoids any conflicts that may arise at some later point of time.

These were some of my learnings from the film. I would love to hear your comments.