Everest Simulation Reflection Paper

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

Mt. Everest’s summit has always seemed an unattainable goal for most people. The idea that most people have is that if I can climb Mt Everest, I can accomplish anything. To have the money and desire to try to attempt it is one thing, but being able to endure the punishment is quite another. Beck Weathers, one of the climbers on this particular expedition, had such severe frostbite that he had to have his right arm, nose and the fingers on his left hand amputated. Everyone on the expedition suffered the rigors of Everest. The two expert guides, Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, lost their lives due to a violent storm that ripped through during their descent from the summit. Their impaired judgment also contributed to their demise. Everest is no respecter of persons. Mt Everest is the most respected mountain in the whole world and if

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.

Rob Hall, a full-time professional climber who climbed Everest four times, was the main director of the Everest climbing service that led Krakauer and a victim of the events of May 1996 (34, 181). Mike Groom, a guide and survivor. Andy Harris, a guide and a victim to Mount Everest. Doug Hansen, a client that was with Hall the day the storm hit. Beck Weathers, a doctor with an appetite for climbing mountains also a survivor. Stuart Hutchinson, a client that had to step in as leader when Hall and the others got stranded on the mountain. Ang Dorje Sherpa, a helper that had refused to fix the ropes for the climbers (187). Jon Krakauer an eager mountain-climber also the narrator and author of the book. Yasuko Namba, group member that got lost on the way down the mountain and unfortunately is left for dead (223). The last person I included, Makalu Gau Ming-Ho was not from this same expedition group but I included him because he had been abandon by his Sherpa and had been rescued by members of Hall and Fischer’s team, he was the leader of the Taiwanese climbing group

Two noticeably famous people who have climbed the ruthless mountain Everest, Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmand Hillary, are possibly the best 2 climbers that have been around, and If I had to choose between the two, I would pick Norgay. When deciding between the two I had to think about several things, and one of them is the advantages of having both people with myself. Nonetheless, I concluded that they were both bold and that they were willing to do anything to go 29,000 feet. They were both someone who knew about the land, and knew what to do, and not what to do. “At that great moment for which I had waited all my life, my mountain did not seem to me a lifeless thing of rock and ice, but warm and friendly and loving.” (Norgay Page 42) Even

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.

Have you ever wondered what kind of hardships come with climbing the tallest mountain in the world before? Expectantly, the book Peak by Roland Smith and the movie Everest have a lot of similarities with some exceptionally prominent differences. From personal conflict and character conflict to the general aspect of climbing Mt. Everest, the book and the movie explore all different types of similarities and differences. Being similar, in both the movie and the book, the mountain always decides. The morals were constant and everyone experiences the same deal in similar ways. One significant difference came between Peak, the main character in the book, and Rob(5th summit attempt), the main character in the movie.

In the year 1953, late May, two climbers finally reached the summit of their expeditions. Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay gazed down from the tallest summit on earth at the valleys surrounding them and sighed a breath of relief, as they were the first people to ever ascend the beast known as Everest. 46 years later Jon Krakauer’s book “Into Thin Air” tells of the harrowing and demanding road to the peak of Everest. I bet you are probably thinking what would prompt these smart men and women to put themselves into such a hard and narrowly survivable situation. In this paper we will go over a couple of the reasons that causes people to climb Everest. First personal achievement, Secondly glory and fame, and Third Adrenaline rush or The pull

In Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, a Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster, Jon Krakauer explains his encounter with the great Mt. Everest. As a child, Jon Krakauer longed for climbing, yet he never envisioned that this one ascension would be a calamity. Krakauer was doled out by Outside Magazine to write about the business undertakings that were being directed on Mount Everest in May 1996. Jon Krakauer, the storyteller and creator, depicts a direct record of this disastrous voyage. Krakauer, his aide, and a gathering of climbers set out to the highest point of Mt. Everest to perceive how dangerous or safe it was to handle the world's biggest mountain. Lamentably, 1996 was Everest's most exceedingly bad season ever, and Krakauer describes the

On May 10, 1996 six people died trying to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. These people were parts of two expeditions that were in the Himalayas, preparing to ascend the summit for six weeks. The first group was under the direction of Rob Hall, who had put 39 paying clients on the summit in five years. Hall was considered the leader of the mountain and the man to see no matter what the discrepancy. Group two, headed by Fisher, who like Hall, was trying to start a profitable business in providing the experience of climbing Mt. Everest to all for the price of 60 to 70 thousand dollars. Unfortunatly, neither man would live to tell the tale of this expedition.

The Everest simulation allows participants to explore varying forms of communication, leadership and different attributes of teams to determine what alternative best suit the given situation. The simulation entails decision making processes, which must be effectively executed in order to maximise team efficiency and attain set goals. The simulation involves ascending towards the summit of Mount Everest along with other team members, each with predefined roles. The interdependent nature of the task requires members to work in collaboration to achieve goals and later evaluate the outcome and the shortcomings that may have hindered success. This report explores communication, leadership and groups and teams as themes for examining the outcomes of the task, as well as determining what implications this experience holds for future teamwork based activities.

During the first climb on September 1st, 2014, the team is still scattered and the members are reluctant to share information and opinions. At the first stage of the Everest, our appointed leader, Rachel accidentally submitted the final decision, making the whole team