The Everest Simulation, A Team Of Five

Our team’s major goal when completing this simulation was to ensure we scored as many points as possible not only individually but collectively. The enticement to get every member to the summit was alluring; however as a team we decided it was better to stop and contemplate each stage in order to maximise points. As the simulation was a highly structured task this made the concept of an individual leading and managing the team ultimately redundant. Each group member contributed towards being team leader as the group worked cooperatively and cohesively throughout. This issue corresponds to the theory of leadership and in particular substitutes for leadership. A team working as one making informed

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

In team leadership, the Hill Model is stated by Northouse (2016) as “to simplify and clarify the complex nature of team leadership and to aid leadership decision making for team leaders and members” (p. 366). This model has several key concepts and practices that this paper will look at and exploit the aspect of influence and processes that people in a groups or teams interact and the force within the group acting to unit all the members or leadership functions. Whether traditional leadership of teams or groups with a formal leader or a self-directed group with no specific leader all benefit from an shared leadership with the attention and focus of all members on the groups process dynamics. This is more so the case in virtual teams benefiting from shared leadership. Team-based structures in organizations have several positive characteristics and are capable of increasing production, allocation and use of resources, effective on making decisions and problem solving, increased quality and services as well as, fluent innovation and creativity, as listed by Parker (as cited in Northhouse, 2016, p. 364).

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.

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.

/ 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

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 use of face-to-face interactions resolved many of the communication issues which arose in Everest 1. Furthermore, the group was able to establish a clear shared leadership structure through the team contract. With both conditions satisfied, the value of simulations was clear. The group was able to identify key goals and adopted a majority based decision-making process. The implementation of a minimum 15-minute brainstorming and discussion period meant each member could develop their leadership potential through the opportunity to have their thoughts heard and debated. Although there were still numerous points of contention, these were generally productive. However, the transition from a virtual to a physical environment did have drawbacks. For example, there was an emergence of groupthink as members began to succumb to the effects of peer

The problems that arose during the Everest Simulation relating to corporate culture stemmed from the clash of personal objectives and goals. While every team member was climbing Everest together, members had their own independent motives. For example, my goal to clean each camp did not include going to the summit of Everest, which was contradictory to the leaders goals. A belief that relates to corporate culture is that each member on our ascending group had a role, both

This report is reflect of the Everest Simulation experiences in a team randomly chosen in tutorial group. The Everest Simulation is designed by Harvard Business School as a group activity to experience team work and leadership. This activity whereby five to six students with different role and undertaken two virtual attempts of an online simulation to climb Mount Everest. The purpose of this simulation is allows students to experienced team environment, develop leadership and focus on decision making skills.