LE 03 - Crossing the Valley

Picture below shows the classical depiction of valley crossing, used very often to demonstrate the concept of teamwork. But, is it just the team work, or there is more to it? Any management lessons? Any learning about running the organizations? Provoking thoughts?

Crossing The Valley

Probably, we never thought about it. We usually got content with the concept of teamwork. Well, no doubt, that's the essence of this exercise, or the cartoon. But, if we investigate it further, we can find that it holds some very interesting management lessons inside it. The skills of problem solving, approaching the problem in right way, decision making (is the way shown only way to cross the valley?), interdependence, importance of effective communication (role of feedback), structuring the team, planning and execution would be just some of it!!!

Overview of the Problem

As such the problem statement is pretty self-explanatory from the picture; but let's put words into it -

1. There are three people who need to cross the valley.
2. The width of the valley is less than 2 steps but more than 1 step. (It can be proved that, if the width is more than 2 steps, it cannot be crossed. To know why, check the attachment later in this blog).
3. The only resource available with the team is a piece of wood (or a bamboo or a pipe - let the length be as much as you want).
4. All three of them must cross the valley safely, none should be left behind or fall into valley.
5. Optional. We would like to retain the bamboo as far as possible!

Now that problem is defined, let's think about the solution, the different ways we can solve it, and ingredients of crossing the valley with excellence!

The Solution

One solution for this problem is depicted above, but there could be multiple solutions. No, not could be, there must be! Creativity demands the multiple solutions. It's then function of management that helps us in choosing the best of all available solutions.

We'll demonstrate some solutions below -

Can't we just walk over this thing??

An Engineer's Approach

Or, lets go pole vaulting !!

While all these solutions may appear interesting and simpler enough, there are just few things that we would not like to do! Why the above implemented solutions cannot be chosen, we will study in due time (in this post only).

The one solution which would work really well, is actually the one depicted in the introduction of this post.

Step-by-step guide for this solution is available here.

Valley Crossing exercise conducted at NITIE

(IM-18, with Professor Mandi)

Teamwork

As we said earlier, the something, that comes to mind almost immediately upon watching the picture is TEAMWORK. It is beautifully defined above - teamwork is application of talents of individuals in pursuit of a goal so that it leads to success ultimately.

All the three people trying to cross the valley must contribute to the goal, i.e. crossing the valley (as described by the problem). As a part of this teamwork, there are few more attributes that inherently come to the play -

Share The Responsibility -

Every one must contribute to the process of crossing the valley and should assume the responsibility that best suites his/her skill-sets.
Similarly, in an organization, every single member of it, be it the upper level manager, or a frontline manager or even a worker need to be responsible. The trait of responsibility of an individual shows his/her dedication to the work and justifies the significance of the work undertaken. If everyone assumes the responsibility of the task provided willingly, the other person can do his work independently without getting worried about if the rest work would be done properly or not! Obviously, there is no "I" in the team.

Trust the Other Person -

As the solution depicts, that at any point of time, the valley crossing must not get completely unsafe for any of the involved parties. It is important, as if there is no trust among the team members, the efforts put in might just be futile. When the person is being sent to the other end of valley, he must have trust enough that people behind him won't let him fall; similarly the last person must have enough trust that he won't be left behind. If any of them can't have this trust, the job might not be possible to complete. The 1st person would never be willing to go ahead, and the last one would not put the complete efforts due to apprehension that he might be left behind.
In an organization as well, this holds very true. If managers can't trust the workers for doing their work, and vice-versa (Theory X environment), the workplace might not remain the motivating place to work.

Interdependence -

It can be observed that for a given valley crossing problem, the interdependence is very crucial, and is maximum. If any of the persons is affected, the whole exercise is sabotaged. If any of the person falls into the valley or abandons his/her responsibility, the whole team would be highly affected.
Exactly in the same way, interdependence is an integral part of any organization. The higher the interdependence, the higher is the risk, but along with this, even the returns are higher. If organization is run well, with high interdependence, it might just get you the pure excellence!!

Coordination & Cooperation -

Coordination means the act of organizing, making different people or things work together for a goal or effect to fulfill desired goals in an organization. Coordination plays an important role in the valley crossing, as if the coordination fails at any moment, all of the factors discussed above fails. Even if the persons are responsible, and have complete trust on each member, it will all be of no use, if the coordination fails among them.
In any organization, there are large no. of people involved who need to work with each-other. Thus, coordination assumes even more important role.

Everyone Is Equal 

While doing this exercise, one thing that should always be kept in mind is that, everyone is equal. All the three of people involved are equal. As already explained, the roles for everyone are clearly defined, and everyone is responsible for their respective roles. Everyones has equal roles, and  so should their contribution be.

Why is it important to treat everyone is equal - It must be always be remembered, when one is running an organization, there is never a choice about what kind of worker he/she gets to work with. It's a manager's job to achieve the results in best possible way with available resources and man-power!

 Making the Correct Decisions

We earlier discussed some different solutions for the valley crossing problem. One of them was "An Engineer's Approach". While the solution may seem simple enough, what we must not forget is the risk associated with it.

• We do not know if all the three person are capable enough to walk over the bamboo to get across the valley or not.
• We have no control over the movement of the bamboo (it may roll to one side or just keep shaking) making it difficult to walk over it.
• We have no idea about the surface of the bamboo, if it's very slippery, one cannot walk over it to the other side with safety.

As it can be seen, while walking over the plank appears a simple enough solution, it is not very safe. It has a very high amount of risk factor associated with it and compromises highly on the safety factor.

Thus, before choosing any solution, it is very important to study the options, and risk associated with them. This makes the decision making an extremely important trait in corporate environment. A wrongly taken decision without completely studying the consequences of same might lead to awry results!

Do Not Leave Scope for Specialization - Generalize/Simplify The Solution

While we are analyzing the solutions, let us also think about the pole vaulting solution for a while. This solution seems less risky than walking over plank now, but, only if you know the pole vaulting. This represents the specialization in a corporate environment. Specialization limits your ability to get the work done. Because, in case of pole vaulting, one will need a team where everyone is expert in pole vaulting. (This again contradicts our observation - Everyone is equal. In a corporate environment, you do not have so much flexibility as to ask for resources of your choice).
The correct approach is to break the task into limited number of activities and let everyone do it repeatedly. One must generalize the solution to the extent that even a common man could do it.

Structuring the Team Correctly

From the discussion above, we can identify important attributes for structuring our team correctly. These attributes would be -

• Interdependent Roles (Interlocking Roles) - Every team member should have an interdependent role. This helps individuals in taking up the responsibility, as mistake of one would cost everyone. Roles may differ for everyone, but the overall impact remains same, the end result remains same.
• Autonomous but Interdependent Team - While the roles may be interdependent, team may be autonomous and should be able to function and operate independently. (The team and not the members).
• No scope for the social loafing
• Instantaneous Feedback - When the team members have interlocking roles, it is important to have an instantaneous feedback system. The effect of any action should be communicated almost instantaneously to every member of the team.
• Decentralized Management - Here for valley crossing problem, there is no centralized management that takes all decisions. Everyone contributes to the decision making, planning and execution part of the problem solving.

So, after all, there are many of the learnings worth learning, from Valley Crossing problem!!  And these are not all!!

More lessons to learn, in the next post!!