Valley Crossing Excercise

The Puzzle

The valley crossing activity requires three men holding a pole over their shoulders to cross a valley. The valley is so wide that one cannot cross it in a single step but it requires less than 2 steps. The activity demands high amount of coordination as even a slight misjudgment can lead to disastrous results. The solution devised for the problem is a prime example of improvisation and process formulation in order to tackle a seemingly complex problem.

Structuring the Task:

It was important to break down the task into roles and responsibilities corresponding to each individual. Assigning the roles reduced the complexity and uncertainty in the process.

Process:Half Safe – One leg in the air and the other leg has support
Full unsafe - Both the legs are in the air without any support
Full Safe - Both the legs have full support

Solution

Role X = Role Y = Role Z : All roles are equal and there is no differentiation between the responsibilities of any two persons. All three are equally responsible in their contributions for the overall task completion.

Risk and Responsibilities :

Roles of all three members are similar but not same; and equivalent in terms of total effort & risk.

All 3 member Roles have equal distribution of 

• Risky situations (1)
• Half risky situations (2)
• No risk situations (6)

The ideal situation in an organization would demand the “No Risk” scenario to be maximum. Hence our objective should be to reduce the risk factors in the process.

Communication and feedback across the 3 members was instantaneous.

Interdependence among the 3 members was maximized and made crucial.

The roles are interlocking, with highest levels of interaction among the members, with instantaneous feedback being exchange and without any scope for social loafing.

Some key aspects of this excercise:

Trust:

Trust is of utmost importance, be it in personal relationships of professional ones. Lack of trust creates doubts and becomes a major headwind for smooth flow of information.

Continuous and clear chain of Communication:

All the 3 members are systematically trained for all the steps and, while crossing, they communicate and coordinate with each other through a various kinds of sounds and other signals.

Team Excellence :

Team excellence comes through proper designing of team tasks, correctly assigning team roles, and preparation and execution of the tasks. Thus, excellence is designed by the managers.

Load Sharing: This activity involves sharing of the load among the three valley crossers. This is the same scenario we face in the corporate world where load needs to be shared among the team members working towards a common goal. The roles and responsibilities have to be divided among the members by the manager. Hence the task of the manager is very critical because that will drive the final output, the project and indirectly the organization as a whole.

 Simplicity in Design: The design of this example is very elementary but of profound significance as we are seeing via discussion of these principles. This is how the design should be done in industry also - keep the design as simple as possible and work towards its implementation.

Work Planning : As a manager one need to come out with step by step plan in order to help the three members to cross the valley. In order for the three persons to cross the valley the width of the valley must be slightly larger than a single step of one person but must be smaller than two steps. Moreover few technical specifications must be taken into account i.e. strength of the pole, creating markings on pole etc. The managers needs to specify the variety of roles when the three cross the valley.