LE04 : Human Tower exercises,Valley Crossing and POM concepts

                          HUMAN TOWER           

This exercise was performed live by my classmates and they were successful in building a human tower with 5 people, making sure that load was distributed as evenly as possible among the participating members - this was very important learning from this exercise.

The INTERDEPENDENCE of each and every member can be clearly understood from the fact that everyone was playing a pivotal role in the functioning of the structure. Every person was trying to balance the load between his legs and his back.

The proper DISTRIBUTION OF LOAD was another important factor which need to understood and taken into account. The load needs to be properly balanced between all the people so as to reduce the chances of bottlenecks in the structure.

The way the risk was minimized by the help of the structure was excellent to be observed. The excellence which is the product of effectiveness and efficiency can be achieved with the teamwork and risk minimization. Even in the case of any particular company the risk need to be minimized within a team in order to achieve the best results.

                                                                

Crossing the valley

This exercise was performed to provide an idea of the concept of TEAMWORK. Teamwork is a mixture of action process, interpersonal process and transition period in between. Teamwork consists of leadership, team formation, team norms, outcome interdependence, competition and coo petition. Teamwork can lead to better decisions, products, or services. The quality of teamwork may be measured by analyzing the following six components of collaboration among team members: communication, coordination, balance of member contributions, mutual support, effort, and cohesion.

In one study, teamwork quality as measured in this manner correlated with team performance in the areas of effectiveness (i.e., producing high quality work) and efficiency (i.e., meeting schedules and budgets).Team members’ ratings of their satisfaction with a team is correlated with the level of teamwork processes present

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This particular exercise was to be performed in groups of three members each. Task given to  a group is to  switch over from left side of the valley to the right side of the valley by taking  the support  of the  pole as shown in the cartoon. Direct jumping and attempts are considered FATAL and not welcomed at all. The basic motto of the task is to enable the students to understand the teamwork and Organization and Management  through experiencing this task. 

All the three members  have interchanging roles in the completion of the task .If we look closely at the table of the steps of the exercise we would notice that the here friends have equal distribution of risky ,half-risky and no-risky. Therefore all three members roles are designed “EQUALLY STRONG”. A big part of this exercise is in the preparation of the exercise. All the movement must be properly synchronous for proper completion of the task. All the three members while crossing the river communicate and coordinate with each other through sound/signal. We also see that the structuring of the Team Roles is very important the completion of the task.

As a manager one need to come out with step by step plan in order to help the three members to cross the valley. In order for the three persons to cross the valley the width of the valley must be slightly larger than a single step of one person but must be smaller than two steps. Moreover few technical specifications must be taken into account i.e. strength of the pole, creating markings on pole etc. The managers needs to specify the variety of roles when the three cross the valley. 

Work Process 

In order to cross the valley the 3 persons must be trained prior to the main event so that they can interchange their roles without any difficulty.Moreover, there are some technical specifications which are required to be met.The strength of the pole must be large enough  to with stand the weight of the 3 members.The members of the group must be motivated in order to undertake the task and cross the valley.The different roles of the three members must be interlocked in order to achieve the proper output.  

The three member roles have been defined as follows:-

A:  A is the first person who undertakes the work. He may called as “dicoverer” as he is the one who initiates the work.

B: Comparatively,  B’s job  is less risky compared to  A and more risky compared to  C.   

C:    C will  follow his / her  fore walkers in crossing the valley.  C’s  job  is less risky compared to  B and  A

Three wise men Crossing the valley  - Detailed task process

Persons	First Person	Second Person	Third person
Step
1	Safe	Safe	Safe
2	Half Risky,
3	Full Risky,
4	Half Risky,	Half Risky,
5		Full Risky,
6		Half Risky,	Half Risky,
7			Full Risky,
8			Half Risky,
9	Safe	Safe	Safe

The sum total of total tasks, burdens and responsibilities that are shared by the three people is equal but there are variations among the roles of A, B and C in assuming the roles. Thus the importance of TEAMWORK is being highlighted through this exercise.

Other POM concepts which are highlighted through this exercise are:-

Interlocking roles: Roles which are connected one to the other is interlocked and the success of the whole task is dependent on this success of this concept. Here in this exercise, member roles for crossing the valley are interlocked. It is the ability of the management to think the roles in such  a way.

Conceptual Skills:  Imagining the way how to cross the valley is the conceptual skill. This concept of conceptualizing the whole process of valley process is the main job of MANAGEMENT which needs to be implemented very carefully if the whole exercise need to be completed successfully.

Cooperation : Help and effort each of the members contributed to team. 

Coordination:  Members cooperation are put in systematic way so that the result can be channelized in order to receive the best output. Management is more concerned with coordinating the cooperation of the individuals so that over all result is achieved. 

Excellence :This is the product of efficiency and effective.Its the prime aim of any management process.

Doing right thing is effectiveness. Here three members crossing the valley, if universally people hail this as the best method then it is called effectiveness. Lesser effort the 3 members put in, lesser time spend with in which they could achieve their goal is an indication of efficiency