Leadership and Team Simulation: Everest

This morning when I had set out for the Organizational Behavior and Decision Making class, I did not quite know how fulfilling my day would be.

Till yesterday night, all I knew was that we will play an online game called ‘Everest’ (made available by Harvard Business School). I also knew that I am playing the role of a team leader for a group of 5 people. So late in the night I was sitting and listening through the various videos and preparation material available on Harvard’s website. I had an idea about what this game is trying to bring forth to us, so I did pay attention to the key aspects, leadership style and technical know-how for the game in the night (KNOW THE RULES). One of my key goals was to avoid group conflict.

As part of the game, we had decided to start at Base Camp, and the game simulation was not too far from the real time everest climbing. The team would gather at Base Camp with food and supplies and ascent to Camp 5 in 5 days. We had an extra 1 day as buffer.

A view of Everest southeast ridge base camp. The Khumbu Icefall can be seen in the left. In the center are the remnants of a helicopter that crashed in 2003.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Everest_base_camp.jpg

The team consisted of 4 more people – a marathoner, a photographer, a photographer and a physician. Each of the team members had their personal goals and also team goals (common). It was up to the teams and largely to the team leader to ensure that the goals are met  in the best possible way.

This morning, I reached the class and by 9:30 our group (G1) had collected around a table with their systems ready. It was interesting from here on how the team dynamics evolved.

Base Camp 1: The team openly discussed their common goals followed by their team goals. There was an initial conflict within the team about whether they should focus on accomplishing team goals or personal goals. However we decided early on that we prioritize our common goal (Avoid Rescue) and made an additional goal for our team G1 – Stay together and get as many people to the top as possible.

Observations:

• Being honest in a team is a big virtue. This helps understand that all goals cannot be achieved 100% so a trade off is important.
• With trust in place, it is important to agree on a clear goal and strategy early in time.
• Knowing the rules of the game and sharing knowledge is crucial to ensuring a Win-Win situation.

Base Camp 2: Reaching to Base Camp 2 was easy. At this point, we made a quick team-check and checked on heath, weather prediction, frost-bite dangers, supplies, speed and food. We realized that our environmentalist was weak at Camp 2. When asked about what help she needs, she could not analyze (based on information available) about what help she needs. So we decided to move on.

• Working with information that you have is important. Make the best out of what you have.
• Regular performance check is important characteristics of good leadership.
• Communication is the key. As a leader, it is important to be a good listener and a good facilitator of information.
• Trust and Honesty is the key.

Base Camp 3: The moment I proceeded to Camp 3, it was pleasantly surprising that all the team members were worried if the environmentalist is doing fine. The team was FORMED already.  This was very satisfying feeling.

We found that actually the environmentalist was critical. She had asthma and she couldn’t move further. She still didn’t know what she can do to improve her health. At this stage, I was about to send our environmentalist back, when the photographer came with an invaluable piece of information – “If the physician gives inhaler to the environmentalist, she will be ok”. BINGO!!

We now realized what the game was doing to us. It gave us different information. All of a sudden the online simulation became a common risk to us and we all paid extra attention to the information we had, ensuring that the information is correctly communicated.

However, the challenge was not gone even after the inhaler. The environmentalist was still critical. All the other team was in good health, and some team members though one option could be to split up. However, we looked back our goals and decided to stay one day with the environmentalist at Camp 3.

• Working with information that you have is important. Make the best out of what you have.
• It is important to revisit your team goals and take a good strategic decision.
• The key to keep going in tough conditions is to keep the team motivation high.
• Group cohesiveness is a great motivation for the group to succeed.
• In crisis situations, team members need to have the best possible levels of psychological safety feeling.

Base Camp 3 (Day 2): The next day the environmentalist’s health improved, however the photographer and the leader’s health became critical. I knew that I had 15 years of mountaineering experience so I could survive. I decided to move on. When I asked about what the photographer feels, he echoed my thoughts. An important challenge here was to decide how much oxygen canisters everyone gets. So after some calculations, we arrived at the distribution. With the canisters and some extra load on our backs, we proceeded to Camp 4.

• Regular performance checks are important to keep the teams going
• Analyzing information is important to avoid failure
• Knowledge sharing is the key.
• Leader needs to show strength to keep the teams motivated.

Base Camp 4: Surprisingly at Base Camp 4 we were all in good shape. Some of us were weak but not critical. This immediately had a huge impact on the team morale. We again made a check of the weather (ensured we had at least a 24 hour window of good weather), checked on health and decided to move to Camp 5. Wow, we are close  .

• Regular performance check is important characteristics of good leadership.
• Good strategy made early on in the teams increase team’s performance potential immensely.

Base Camp 5: We all successfully reached the SUMMIT !!
(Overall Team Goals Achieved: 94%
Leadership Goals Achieved: 100%)

• It was amazing to see how this  online simulation could impact teams and people.
• At the summit, when actually we were really feeling we had reached the top, we clapped and laughed for almost 2 min.

Final Take: Understanding Team Dynamics, Accepting changes as they come, Analyzing available information, Predictive Decision Making and Effective Communication are the magic rules behind successful teams.