Valley Crossing!!

Valley Crossing _ LE 03:

So.... here I am... Sitting in my hostel room.. Thinking of a yet another thought provoking class on Valley crossing!

A very simple idea of making 3 ppl cross a valley, which individually, they couldn’t have crossed! what better example to understand the criticality of team work, patience, coordination and communication in an organization with big dreams!

Here is what we were shown......

And our task was to make them cross!! With 3 ppl and only 1 wooden log (understand limited resources in an organization), our minds set off.... thinking!!!

And then i recalled my dance lessons in childhood about coordination....  and basketball lessons about team work to win! And martial arts lessons... where i got hit so many times right on the face when i misread the expressions on my opponents’ faces!

Thinking of all these, I could actually think of a way of making them cross the valley without exposing anyone to more risk than the other! Isn’t it all there on the picture itself????

 

SET THE GOAL: Yes! That is the most important task! Be it the simple task of doing my assignment on time or setting up my dream restaurant in Goa, you got to SET the goal! As they say..  eyes on prize! Here, our goal was to cross the valley... safely!

DEFINE THE STEPS: Now how do we go about it???

Proper prioritizing of subjects for me to meet the deadlines of assignments....

 savings for setting up my dream restaurant.... finalizing the location... studying the trend of tourism... operational difficulties.... basically a road map to get a good night’s sleep every day, with no tension of reporting to bosses... loving my job where I am the master!

Or in this case, making them cross the valley, which goes like this:

Person	First Person	Second Person	Third Person
Steps:
1	Safe	Safe	Safe
2	Half Risky	Safe	Safe
3	Fully Risky	Safe	Safe
4	Half Risky	Half Risky	Safe
5	Safe	Full Risky	Safe
6	Safe	Half Risky	Half Risky
7	Safe	Safe	Full Risky
8	Safe	Safe	Half Risky
9	Safe	Safe	Safe

COMMUNICATE:  If you think as to what are the crucial drivers in this exercise, the first one coming to my mind is TALKING!! Communicating to the other 2 persons about implementing the above strategy, what will be the hindrances, points of high risk, ways of tackling them and every other detail required for perfect execution!

We were taught in our martial arts classes to “look into the eyes of the opponent” to understand his next move. That was something I never practiced in my early days of Karate... and that was when I got hit the most! It took me a while to figure out the exact reason of broken bleeding noses and paining backs! When I figured it out, I could really see that if done wisely, I could expect a certain move from my opponent!

Thats what happens in this case of Valley crossing as well... Communicating the right things at the right time is crucial and once done that, crossing is a cake walk!

COORDINATION IN A TEAM: Second thing will definitely be COORDINATION! One mistake on anybody’s part and its all lost!

Same is applicable to my dream business as well! One wrong step in choice of location or maybe the selection of menu or just the rock band to be performing, I am finished!!

Criticality of major decisions and necessity of a proper execution plan couldn’t have been better stated as simply as this example!

While watching circus during childhood, we used to be in awe! Great moves... excellent tricks.... all depending upon one tiny little thing: COordinATION! U lose it and you are dead!

How does it relate here??? It does! Very much! An organization is built by imbibing many departments/business units together. All work to achieve their targets (bosses have to be reported to!!) but when it comes about standing together as ONE to fight competition and all those forces that tend to throw you out of your position, coordination is what is required to add to the ultimate target of the organization!

TRUST: When striving so hard to achieve our goals, trust on the support functions is very essential. In our case of crossing the valley, this picture depicts exactly the emotions in the person’s mind!

 Conclusion: Be it about making your dream come true or working your way up the ladder in a company:
Love what you do... Do what you love!!






Until next time... So long!!