Leadership and Teamwork
A Reflective Report on the Everest 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 situations where personal goals collided with the team’s goals.
The distinction between working with a team and working as a team was the main lesson I learned from the simulation. Listed below are objective barriers our team encountered during the simulation, some of which we succeeded in overcoming and some of which we did not.
We succeeded at:
1. Planning: Good decision making seldom took place by chance. We fully discussed the decision making process and always took action as a team.
2. Performance: The need for individual high scores did not encourage team members to act in detriment of the team. Although each team member was assigned individual roles and tasks to accomplish, we all aimed for the shared goal first.
3. Cohesion: Even when making erroneous decisions, like the allocation of insufficient numbers of oxygen tanks, we all agreed on the decisions and assumed responsibility for our errors. There was never polarization or finger pointing during the simulation exercise.
4. Trust: All team members identified and provided full information they possessed. This is because we built trust from the start and gave support to each other when it was most needed.
We weren’t as successful at:
1. Information: In each round, we had to discuss whether to move to the next camp and assess our supplies, hiking speed, health, and weather. The complexity of the available information reduced our ability to concentrate on the task at hand and resulted in costly mistakes.
2. Diversity: Individual team members communicated emotions differently through choice of words and physical gestures. These culture-specific emotions led to instances of miscommunication and misunderstanding.
3. Feedback: Members were indifferent to posted messages and feedback. For example, in the second round, the doctor tried to figure out who needed asthma medicine but stopped asking because nobody replied.
4. Leadership: Our leader acted passively and blended in with the other members. She could have been more influential by leading the discussion and giving concrete instructions. She did a good job of participating in the discussions but did not assert her role of higher authority.
Performance
Our team was both successful and unsuccessful throughout the simulation exercise. We achieved a little over 50% of our goals and only attained the weather and medical challenge. We thought we had a good strategy in place and a good team atmosphere going, but our understanding of certain situations turned out to be erroneous. I was the physician and although I participated actively in the overall team strategy, distributed medicine as needed, and managed to attain my personal goal of studying the effect of high altitude, I erred in the calculation of the amount of oxygen tanks needed for some team members, which affected the team’s final score.
I would like to mention an event that helped consolidate the team’s morale. At Camp 2, our team decided unanimously to stay overnight and rest since the health of our photographer had become critical. The harmonious decision helped avoid a damaging storm, allowed the doctor to achieve his research goal, and halted the photographer’s deteriorating health. It was undoubtedly the finest moment in our team’s performance.
Conclusion
Success in the Mount Everest Simulation was not defined as reaching the summit of a mountain, but rather in terms of strong leadership, positive team work, logical decision making, and effective communication and dispute resolution to accomplish a specific task. Based on my personal experience, I realize the importance of knowing and understanding all team members. Fluid, open communication and positive feedback are key factors. Active listening, motivating, engaging, and valuing each team member’s contributions create an effective work environment. Mistakes happen, but valuable learning comes from the mistakes and our understanding of the challenges and opportunities to overcome them. If we, as team members, learn from our mistakes and are fully committed to the success of the team, we all win.