Filling the gaps in an organisation

Every manager knows the power of Teamwork. In fact the very existence of a manager can be attributed to the phenomenon of 'Teams'. If human beings had long decided to do every task individually, the world would have been a totally different place. The Valley Crossing exercise purely focused on learning this phenomenon called 'Teamwork'.

In this exercise there is an important organizational lesson to be learned. Organizations are meant to facilitate the unfathomable.

Here the task is to cross a gap which can be between two tables, two roofs etc. The catch is that it needs to be done by 3 people as a team using a pole, as can be seen in the self explanatory figure above. Some of the learning from this are :

There is one leader at all times. : 
Without a leader, an organization is like a horse cart without a rider; all horses attached to it would take it in different directions and it would end up in a ditch. Same applies to organizations as well. In this activity we see that there is one leader who guides the rest of the team in correct direction.
All are leaders at sometime. :
The role of a person keeps changing within an organization. It is dynamic and is tailored as per the needs. In this activity too we see that when the first person is hanging on the rod, he isn't leading the team, rather it is the second person who is. Everyone plays their role of responsibility and authority as per the common goal.

Real-time communication
This is most necessary for the proper coordination between many players as it helps in the maintenance of “Unity of Command” principle. Effective communication is a prerequisite.

Dynamic role definition for 3 people
This condition helps us in learning that in a team, everyone has to know how to do varied tasks for the over-all achievement of goals and more important than that all the people should get different roles leading to the growth of development of organization.

The team must be told about these practices before they attempt the task and similarly management is supposed to inform the employees about what is expected from them and various aforementioned conditions which will help them in succeeding.

Synchronous movement
It is also necessary to make sure that team does not falter in-between the task and it helps us in learning the “Unity of direction” principle.