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 !!!