Three Idiots Crossing the Valley - Teamwork Principle

 
Effective teamwork creates its own set of characteristics that makes it possible to see the cohesion in a group. When an efficient team gets to work, the structure that has been put into place helps the group obtain productive results. In order to create a productive team, you first need to be able to identify the characteristics of effective teamwork.
Why is team work important?

Delegation

A team that works well together understands the strengths and weaknesses of each team member. One of the benefits of strong teamwork in the workplace is that team leaders and members become proficient at dividing up tasks so they are done by the most qualified people.

Efficiency

Work groups and teams develop systems that allow them to complete tasks efficiently and quickly. When a task is handed to a well-trained and efficient team, the team's work pace assures that the task will be completed quickly and accurately.

Ideas

Teams in the workplace often meet to discuss how to solve company issues. When a team works well together, it allows staff members to feel more comfortable in offering suggestions.

Support

There are challenges each day in any workplace, and a strong team environment can act as a support mechanism for staff members. Work group members can help each other improve their performance and work together toward improving their professional development.

This particular exercise of 3 idiots crossing the valley was to be performed in groups of three members each. Task given to  a group is to  switch over from left side of the valley to the right side of the valley by taking  the support  of the  pole as shown in the cartoon. Direct jumping and attempts are considered FATAL and not welcomed at all. The basic motto of the task is to enable the students to understand the teamwork and Organization and Management through experiencing this task. 

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 risky, half-risky and no-risky. Therefore all three members’ roles are designed “EQUALLY STRONG”. A big part of this exercise is in the preparation of the exercise. All the movement must be properly synchronous for proper completion of the task. All the three members while crossing the river communicate and coordinate with each other through sound/signal. We also see that the structuring of the Team Roles is very important the completion of the task.

   We have following observations overall from the exercise :

  1) All three members have equal distribution of different   kinds of situation :

       High Risk 01 times

       Half Risks 02 times

       Fully Safe 02 times

    2)   All three members have the same role in terms of effort and risk. Nobody was overloaded or relaxed.

    3)  Communication and feedback is essential while working in a team.

    4)  Every member is indispensable in completing the task.

    5)  There were equal instances when one needed each other.

Tower Building : new management lessons through games

The tower building exercise challenges one to build a tower by  putting one square block over another and achieving the maximum height possible till the tower falls down. The students were asked to set a goal of the maximum height of the tower they can achieve in terms of the square blocks.

The students came up with varying responses ranging from 27 blocks to 40 square blocks. The historical record was said to be 26 so all said the aim was to beat that. Once the goals are set, a student who had set 10 blocks as his target was called to the dais to build the tower . The student performed the exercise and the achieved a height of 17 blocks. 

Considering 17 blocks as the historical data of the height of the tower, students are asked to re assess their goals. Results of reassessment are discussed in the 'Learning' section.

The twist in the tale

At a later part of the exercise, one of the students is blind folded and is asked to build the tower with his non-dominant hand while two open-eyed students act as his instructors and guide him in building the tower.

Learning

After the demonstration of historical data, when the students were asked to reassess their respective target heights, the students altered their target heights based on their new perceptions.

The students are then categorized into two groups based on their target height:

• Students who had set the goal as more than 17 blocks where Goal Set > Attainable Goal from historical data. This is subject to change based on the performance and goal setting by an individual. They tried increasing their goals further.
• The students who had set the goal as less than 17 blocks would now increase the their goal to a higher number because Goal Set > Achievable Performance > Historical Performance.

  As soon as an individual was blindfolded for building the tower with his non-dominant hand,  and was helped by two other open-eyed individuals, there had been a drastic shift in the targets of students. It was observed that

1) Some of the students lowered the target from the previously stated value. These were not preferred in an organization as the organization shouldn't lower its targets despite the hurdles that comes in its path and should strive its best to achieve the target.

2) Some of the students retained their original target. This is preferable as the organization continues to work towards the defined target despite the hurdle through motivation and team effort and effective co-ordination,

3) A few of the students increased the target. Organizations require such kind of people who have an appetite for risk even during tough times.

I learned that there is a need for people of category 2 and 3 in an organization and such an organization expands even in times of crisis.  The tower building exercise helps in discovering some important elements of management namely Goal setting. Leadership, trusting others, being progressive and taking calculated risks.

 

Three Monks: Unity is strength

Three Monks is a Chinese animated film produced by the Shanghai Animated Film Studio. After the Cultural Revolution, the film was one of the first animations created as part of the rebirth period. It is also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests.
Prof. T.Prasad suggested whole class to watch this movie and learn important management lesson from this.

Background of the movie: The film is based on the ancient Chinese proverb "One monk will shoulder two buckets of water; two monks will share the load, but add a third and no one will want to fetch water." The movie revolves around three monks and how their attitude changes when they have to adjust with each other. One of the monks of short heighted, one is long and the third one is fat.

 We can break the movie into 4 parts:

1.     When only one monk is in the house: 
First monk arrives in the monastery on the top of a hill. He has to come down to fetch water from the river and he living happily. He manages his work daily as he is dependent on self for all the work. He prays daily with fixed routine and fetches water with no worries.

2.     When 2^nd monk arrives: 
Then a second monk comes and starts living with the first monk. At first the 2^nd monk who is tall happily fetches water alone for both of them. But then he realizes that it is the duty of not him alone but instead of both of them. The problem starts when they go to fetch water together. They are unable to decide how to divide the work amongst them as no one wanted to do any extra work while carrying water on the slope of the mountain.

They both devised a simple solution of calculating the length of the stick and placing the water bucket in the middle so that no one has the complaint. What we learn from this is that most of the problems in our lives have simple solution. We just have to develop the vision to see that and implement that. Also as managers our job is to find the simplest and easiest solution. Here one was tall and other was short. So, solution should be universal so that there is no impact of the kind of user on the application of the solution. So the solutions we as individuals or a group or as large organizations think must be essentially simple in order to have great results.

3.     When 3^rd monk arrives: 
The 3^rd monk shown is a fat one who drinks lots of water much greater than the other two. He at first goes to fetch water but eventually all of them could not manage the work and no one goes to fetch water. Even though all of them are thirsty no one goes to fetch water. So we learn that as the team size increases, it becomes difficult to manage efforts and plan out the responsibilities of everyone. So here comes the role of a leader to delegate the work to everyone equally so that none of the worker is unhappy and the larger objective is also achieved.

One day winds and clouds arrive and all became hopeful for rains. But it did not happen. So people look out for an easy way of escaping work all the times and will never look for hard work instead look for opportunities to lessen their work.

One day at night, a rat comes to scrounge and then knocks the candle holder, leading to a devastating fire in the temple. The three monks finally unite together and make a concerted effort to put out the fire. This shows that when the situation is very drastic and affects everyone equally, everyone will put in their best efforts to solve the problem as the result effects everybody.

So in crisis, people think quickly and the goal of averting the crisis is in sight. This is short time management as the decisions are being taken for a very short duration of activity.

Finally the monks realize that they have to work in team to solve the situation and devise a better way of fetching the water. They designed a pulley system through which all did equal work and that too in less time.

So we learn that people mostly tries to off load their work to others instead of making a collective effort and divide the work properly. So for proper functioning of the team all the team members must be willing enough to appreciate the strengths and weakness of others and try to resolve the issues through proper channels. Also, the team must be innovative to devise new ways to do work and take everyone into the loop.