Lecture :Valley Crossing Activity

Valley Crossing:Activity in our POM Session

Our Session started with another intereting activity,"The Valley Crossing"Today,By the demonstration of the valley crossing activity,I would like to throw some light upon an important  management concept of Team and Team Work,the concept which binds an orgnization together.

Activity Demonstration: Three people had to cross a valley together carrying a single wooden rod upon their shoulders.The Distance between one side of valley and other side was >one step and <2 steps.The Task was to cross the valley together with the wooden rod.

Choice of three people:Here i would like to ask my audience a question!Should the three people be chosen on the basis of similarity in their physique i.e. height,strength etc.?
Most of us would answer "yes" at the very first instance.But Do our organizations work in the same way?The answer is "No".Being a Part of a team or an activity is a matter of interest, knowledge and expertise.
In our task,three interested people cam forward and formed a group for the task.This kind of group is called Informal team,where people with common interests participate and contribute to the activity.
In organizations,this kind of arrangement is temporary and is called "task force". Organizations don't look at people,they look at work.Managers are solution designers and understand work very well.


Characteristics worth noticing for the team: All the three people in the activity exhibited same interests and had unity in achieving the goal.


Structuring the task: Task was structured in a manner so that the risk,pain and contribution of the three members was equal.
In Organizations also,All member roles are similar in terms of risk,opportunities.


Structuring the Team Roles: Communication is an important part of any group.In the task assigned,group exhibited instantaneous interaction.Managers look for broad results,not individual results.The task exhibited interlocking roles,thats why high level of interaction was required.
In organizations,instantaneous interaction is mandatory so that there are no unproductive hours leading to time lag in the project. Instantaneous feedback is an another mandate.Cohesiveness of a team is an important indicator of Best Performance and timely delivery of results.


So,Teams whether formal or informal, work together to achieve a cohesive well defined goal!