Critical Analysis of Everest Simulation Results

Mount Everest, as the highest mountain in the world, is famous for the enormous challenge of reaching its summit. This analytic essay is an analysis of the management involved with the Everest Simulation created by Harvard Business School. During this 3hour simulation I was the team doctor and achieved all ten of the possible ten points available, therefore 100% of goals were achieved. This score is related to the goals I accomplish as an individual and as a team. I enjoyed the simulation and expanded upon my knowledge as it taught a profound understanding of team dynamics, the capability to accept change, a stronger ability to analyse available information and create effective communication. Our team as a whole obtained 94% of our goals.

In order to continue climbing Everest, many aspects of climbing need to be improved before more people endanger their lives to try and reach the roof of the world. The guides have some areas that need the most reform. During the ascension of Everest the guides made a plethora mistakes that seemed insignificant but only aided in disaster. The guides first mistake is allowing “any bloody idiot [with enough determination] up” Everest (Krakauer 153). By allowing “any bloody idiot” with no climbing experience to try and climb the most challenging mountain in the world, the guides are almost inviting trouble. Having inexperienced climbers decreases the trust a climbing team has in one another, causing an individual approach to climbing the mountain and more reliance on the guides. While this approach appears fine, this fault is seen in addition to another in Scott Fischer’s expedition Mountain Madness. Due to the carefree manner in which the expedition was run, “clients [moved] up and down the mountain independently during the acclimation period, [Fischer] had to make a number of hurried, unplanned excursions between Base Camp and the upper camps when several clients experienced problems and needed to be escorted down,” (154). Two problems present in the Mountain Madness expedition were seen before the summit push: the allowance of inexperienced climbers and an unplanned climbing regime. A third problem that aided disaster was the difference in opinion in regards to the responsibilities of a guide on Everest. One guide “went down alone many hours ahead of the clients” and went “without supplemental oxygen” (318). These three major issues: allowing anyone up the mountain, not having a plan to climb Everest and differences in opinion. All contributed to the disaster on Everest in

Students enrolled in MGTS1301 participated in a three-hour Mount Everest Simulation which involved a team of five people. Each team consisted of a team leader, physician, photographer, environmentalist and marathoner with a common goal of reaching the summit and avoiding rescue. On our team, I was the team leader and completed 40% of my personal goals while our team achieved 44%. After the simulation, I realised I lacked in developing managerial efficiency such as strategic thinking and decision making which led to poor task-structure related to task clarity and the means of leading my team as we progressed through the simulation.

The Everest simulation used the dramatic context of a Mount Everest expedition as related to management concepts exploring the role of leadership, effective communication, and team work to achieve success. The simulation required students to work in cohesive teams consisting of five members, where each individual was assigned a specific role and a goal. The roles included the team leader, physician, environmentalist, photographer, and marathoner. Some goals were contradictory in order to assess how the team reacted to complex and sometimes conflicting situations. Before the actual simulation started, the group discussed the general approach and how to deal with

Lack of psychological safety within the team members failed to fix cognitive bias of irrationality. If members developed trust within the team, cognitive bias could have been prevented or at least minimized. The truth that climbers might make irrational decisions and find it hard to turn back when they are so closed to the summit was obvious, but teammates seeing this problem did not speak up since they did not feel that their thoughts were welcome and felt uneasy. More cognitive biases could also been prevented to lessen the complex system of the expedition. Since climbing Mt. Everest is already a high risk venture, any additional problems such as irrational decisions can cause a crisis. Using the early sign of issues with Hall’s team’s progress, it was obvious that the probability of failing the expedition was high before the team even started. Hall could have used the issues as a sign of the complex systems that exist, and could have used this knowledge to prevent any irrational decisions. The complex systems and the lack of psychological safety also contributed to the tragedy. The team members failed to communicate and trust each other, which then added more problems to the complex systems. For instance, Boukreev’s could have spoken up to his team leader, Fischer, about his concerns regarding his team members lacking experience to begin with. By speaking up, he could have prevented more chain reaction due to lack of communications and feedback within the

Leadership failure is rarely discussed, and yet often represents the greatest potential risk to an organization or group in an unfamiliar situation. For the Everest Simulation, I held the role of team leader, in which I was required to achieve goals relating to a combined ascent and maintaining team safety. At completion, 13 of 20 individual goals, and 65% of overall team goals were accomplished. The lower rate of success was due to several ethical and leadership related failures, resulting in a team member being evacuated on the final ascent. Although the simulation could have been more successful, the team dynamics witnessed were enlightening as to what constitutes effective leadership and ethical decision making in a high-intensity situation.

In the environment today, it is not unusual to see people working in teams to accomplish certain goals and tasks. During our youth, parents and teachers encourage us through various methods to work as part of a team. Whether a sports team, classroom team, or after school activities, parents and teachers and other authority figures start the introduction of working in teams and teaching the value of being able to work together to accomplish a common goal. As people progress through the various stages of their lives, everyone continues to strive to communicate. Communication is a part of everyday life. It may be overlooked in some areas, but when dealing with a team environment, communication is vital. One

This report discusses the Everest simulation in relation to important management concepts. Particularly the report explores the role of leadership, communication and team work in task success, where success is defined in terms of task accomplishment, team member satisfaction and dispute resolution. Moreover, the requirement to eliminate communication barriers through changing mediums, cohesive and coherent team work and democratic leadership styles is explored throughout the report.

After understanding and analyzing the tragedy of Everest, that took eight lives, we can conclude that the incident may occur due to several causes by nature or human error. The major factor that lead to this tragedy is the lack of team work and communication. Even though they were all in the same expedition, eager to reach the summit. While knowledge on humans behaving in extreme situations is limited, most of us believe we would not let someone die in the

/ The mentioned research in this article by McIntyre and Salas could be one of basic steps in understanding the team work aspects. Undoubtedly, it can be used related to future research in favour of finding solutions in this regard. (McIntyre & Salas 1995,p. 41). The military teams focus on researches in order to understand the major aspect of team working. As it is mentioned in this article, some similarities can be found among military or non-military organizations concerning hierarchical structure and strategic decision making. Moreover, it is almost challenging to find exact number from real life in order to make statistical assessment, and it’s very costly to hire people from their actual profession to conduct research on artificial environment (McIntyre & Salas ,1995, p. 35). Another important point that should be considered is that the study concentrated on team working instead of working individually. Over the study period, the required data are gotten through interviews and also daily base forms. Based on the forms and conversations results , nineteen key principles are found which are the necessary and important aspects (findings) of team working. The importance of the team leader role is noticeable to obtain the defined targets. In this regard, team leader has the key role in a team and also should accept the main

In this paper I will discuss how a team leader assesses how big the team is needed in order to accomplish the task assigned to them. This paper will also discuss the how conflicts can arise while trying to meet their goals. Such as which person works better in certain areas. I will also talk about how a team leader resolves their problems that may accure. In addition I will also discuss if team work will take longer to complete task along with some of its advantages. I will also point out some of the resistors to team work like not have the proper tools or supplies. I will also discuss how to be proactive so

The Everest simulation was a unique experience. Before the actual simulation started, my team discussed the approach we would take and how we will deal with situations wherein the personal goals collided with the team goals. We shared our character profile information with each other and began the exercise with excitement and a firm resolve to do our best.

This fable was a great way to promote the importance of a team and its functions. This book had many highlights throughout the context and I would highly recommend it to leaders of a corporation or of that of a team like setting. This book offered many great implications of the model and how to use it in many diverse settings when trying to build and manage successful teams.

This report provides an analysis of the following: the experience in the two Everest teamwork simulations, the results of the two sets of simulation and the communication structure and experience in the two Everest simulations. Method of analysis includes incorporating theories and concept in the course and discussing about the observation during the simulations. There are many concepts and theories which are discussed in this report such as the grouping modeling elements, communication structure, the effects of conforming and the benefits of conflicts and the benefits of effective communication. The report ends with a recommendation that the report could be improved if there is a comparison of the results of two teams

The Everest simulation, a team of five (or six if an observer is present) with diferrent roles, communicate and work together to produce decisions to climb to the peak of mount Everest, while trying to accomplish their own respective goals as well as the team’s goals. Our team of six, named The Rock Stars, are required to finish two sessions of the simulation, one of which we have to complete as a virtual team, meaning that each members must do the simulation at the same while being in diferrent locations, and the other as a standard face to face team. This report will analyze and discuss the issues that the team faced during the two simulations, and how those issues reflects to business theories, such as Tuckman’s theory of group development, McGrath’s theory of team effectiveness, and Kirkman & Malthieu’s argument about teams. This report will also use Neubert’s empirical research about informal leaders to analyze the leadership structure that is present in the team, and wether informal leaders are present, and lastly, this report will contain my personal reflections and the things I have learned throughout the simulations as a team member.