SKY-WALK - Learn more on TEAM WORK

Objective: To learn the concepts of TEAM-WORK through a simple looking SKY-WALK (Valley Crossing) exercise.

When Proff. Mandi asked us to go through his blog on Sky Walk exercise, my first reaction after looking at the picture of the exercise was ITS EASY.  But you should also look the exercise first-

As shown in the figure above, 3 people have to cross the valley which is more than 1 step long but less than 2 steps long. Also they have to carry the rod along with them.. When the first person will come exactly on the top of the valley, he will be hanging and other 2 will be holding them. Similarly it will happen for the other two people when they will come exactly at the top of the valley. All the three members have interchanging roles in the completion of the task .If we look closely at the table of the steps of the exercise we would notice that the here friends have equal distribution of Safe, Half Safe, Risky.

I hope you all also found it easy but believe me it is not!!

This is how it was demonstrated in the class-

 Image- Three batch-mates performing the activity

The risk and safe zones for each of the different 9 steps in order of performing the activity can be better understood by this-

It is clear that each member of the team has equal distribution of different   kinds of situation:

• SAFE- 6 times
• HALF SAFE- 2 times
• RISKY- 1 times
• All three members have the same role in terms of effort and risk. Nobody was overloaded or relaxed.
• Every member is indispensable in completing the task.
• There were equal instances when one needed each other.

My learning and the take away from this exercise –

Planning- A major learning of this exercise is that proper planning. A high skill level is required as the all the movement must be synchronized for completing this task.

Communication: All the three members should communicate and coordinate with each other properly otherwise the performance of the team will be effected and can also be fatal.

Leadership: As for any team, the role of a leader is very important in giving direction and motivation to the team. But in this exercise, when asked who will be the leader, the general response was that the first person who takes the first step is most important and should be considered as a leader. But what about the role of the last person or the second person. Are they not important? They are, and, in fact very important.  

So it emphasizes that roles of all team member are very important and distributed equally and a clear leader cannot be established.

Now here I should talk about a new concept of leadership which was discussed –

Distributed leadership is primarily concerned with mobilizing leadership at all levels in the organisation not just relying on leadership from the top.

    Distributed leadership is not delegation

     Distributed leadership is an organisational condition 

    Distributed leadership does not mean everybody leads

    Distributed leadership has many organisational configuration

While creating teams, a common misunderstanding is that we assume that distributed leadership means delegating certain tasks. Not so. It does not cover the functional distribution, rather it describes a process where leaders are a by-product of shared activity, discussion or dialogue rather than the routine handing out of tasks.

Cohesiveness- The feet movements of each person must be synchronized. All the efforts of the team members must be in perfect sync for the achievement of the common goal.

Do write a feedback. Keep learning-Keep Sharing !!! 

Three MONKS but no WATER !!

Sometimes ‘small can be beautiful’. A small video which titles as ‘Three Monks’- a Chinese animated film made me learn so many wonderful aspects of management. To those who have not watched it, can watch it here.

Or can watch it here :

Plot in Brief:

A young monk lived a harmonious life in a monastery situated on a hill top. He used to bring two buckets of water from a river downhill. A second monk joined the monastery, the first monk was happy that he got someone to do the job of bringing water. But soon, he had to share the responsibility and they brought a water together using a large stick. When the third monk joined the monastery, the two monks threw the responsibility on him to bring the water. Soon, the third monk gave up and there was no water. One night the monastery caught fire and there was no water to extinguish it. They made a united effort to put out the fire. After this the monks realized the importance and started working together to bring water.

The movie has won some outstanding awards and recognition too:

• Won the outstanding film award at China's Ministry of Culture.
• Won the Best animated film prize at the first Golden Rooster Awards in 1981.
• Won four international awards including a Silver Bear for Short Film at the 32nd Berlin Film Festival in 1982.

My Understanding and Analysis:

At one point of time the two monks can be seen carrying a bucket of water on their shoulders using a long stick. And they can be seen trying to push the load onto the other person. This is very common in organisations that generally people want others to do their jobs too and don’t want to share responsibilities. The ideal system with bucket at the centre teaches about the importance of sharing burden and responsibilities in a team, which according to me is IDEAL TEAM WORK.

As Team Work helps in reducing the inputs/efforts, the productivity can be increased.

BUT as this video also shows that METHOD should also be accordingly modified. While two monks could share the load at the center.The same method could not be used when the third monk came in. And towards the last video shows how the monks wonderfully shared the responsibility using an innovative method.

SO METHODS NEED TO BE WORKED UPON TOO.

A simple analysis to study the productivity and efforts of monks in all the three methods shown in the video:

	METHOD 1	METHOD 2	METHOD 3
No of monks	1	2	3
Dependency	Low	medium	High
Effort	High	Moderate	Low
Efficiency or productivity	Low	Moderate	High

Moreover, after giving a thought over the fire-fighting scene, I realized that often in organisations (and in general life too) we tend to take reactive actions and not proactive. If the monks had realized this early the chances of fire could be minimized  So the team members understand their roles and responsibilities well and try to synergise their efforts.

                                                              

Whenever people cooperate to achieve a common goal, the Chinese say :-  

                "Great Things can be achieved by working together"