VALLEY CROSSING

Valley Crossing is an best example of teamwork.  Teamwork is the ability to work together towards the set targets. The below figure shows the image of Valley Crossing

 Exercise

Structuring Task:

Managers will structure task such that it is executed in easier way. They are solution designers. We, NITIE MBA Students, are pursuing M.B.A to learn solving difficult problems not simpler ones. Many out side are there to solve simpler ones. This Task is structured in such a way that

·         Every one is at equally risky position at all times.

·         Communication and feedback across 3 members are instantaneous

·         Interdependence among 3 members is crucial

·         Distance between two persons are >1 foot step length and <2 foot steps length

·         Maximize Excellence

·         Maximize Profitability

Below figure gives positions of all players at each crossing position. Person in red color may give impression that he is completely unsafe and Person in green color is totally safe. But structuring of task is done in such way that every one are at equal risk. Being human, we mostly tend to think and believe things which are visible to eyes. For suppose, when we ask 3 members to select any position among these 3, he is gonna select middle position as he feel he is at safer side. He is in preconceive notion that first position may be risky as he is leading team and he might fallen first in valley and being in last position is also too risky since his team mates might leave him after they cross valley.

The procedure followed is shown below:

At one point of time, each one of them will be in different situation either Safe, Half Safe and Fully Unsafe. There comes 9 steps which they have to follow to cross the bridge. The steps increase once the number of people crossing the bridge increases.

Lessons Learnt:

1. Communication 

2. Coordination

3. Performance in the roles 

4. Strategy 

5. Motivation

6. Support 

                                                 

In any organization, design of work flow, structuring of work, training executives, team work, communication between executives and feedback across them, interdependence and good motivation to do work are equally important. Even if one factor goes bad, whole damn thing will collapse. Goals and objectives are to be designed by high level managers and this work is delegated to low level managers through middle level managers.  As this work is assigned to low level executives by low level manager, they should be motivated highly and proper competency should be given in prior to them. It is very important to note that in an organization every one is equally responsible for organization's success or failure. We are not suppose to blame teamwork. Indeed we should eliminate loopholes in earlier stages and strive organization towards goals and objectives.

Related Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TCVtgBneFU

TOWER BUILDING

Tower Building
The tower building game was performed by one of our batch-mates. It was about putting one square block over the over and achieving the maximum height possible till the tower fell down.
It was about goal setting activity where an individual had to set the target of number of blocks based on his perception. Responses varied from 10 – 30 number of blocks. A student was randomly chosen who had himself set the target as 10. The student performed the exercise and the height achieved was 17 blocks. from this exercise, we had the following conclusions:

1) The students who had set the goal as more than 17 blocks had "Ambitious Goal" where Goal Set>Attainable Goal. The "Ambitious Goal" depends on the performance and goal setting by an individual.

2) The students who had set the goal as less than 17 blocks would now increase their goal to a higher number because Goal Set >Achievable Performance>Historical Performance. This is because the potential of an individual should increase after having performed the exercise which would lead him to set higher target for next time. If Potential is equal to Actual Performance, then Goal Set>Potential. Eventually, Goal is set to realize the Potential.


 Now the above exercise was performed by an open-eyed individual. The professor presented a case where the individual will be blindfolded and helped by two other open-eyed individuals for building the tower. He asked us what your targets will now be. It was observed that:

1) Some of the students lowered the target from the previously stated one and considered as Back Folders This is not preferred since the organization shouldn't lower their targets despite the hurdles which come across and should utilize more resources and increase the effort in order to achieve the previously defined targets.

2) Some of the students retained the target and are known as Maintainers. This is preferable as the organization continues to work towards the defined target despite the hurdle through motivation and team effort and effective co-ordination,

3) A few of the students increased the target and such students are therefore considered as Progressive Minds. There are organizations of such kind which expand even during tough times when others are contracting and avoiding risks. Best example can be during recession which though being a threat to many is considered as opportunity by some companies to expand their market share and invest cautiously.

Over all, the tower building exercise helped in discovering an important element in management which is the Goal Setting Process.


Related Video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlJHLSSVJwI&feature=related

Management Concepts on Khan Academy.org

About

They are on a mission to provide a free world class education for anyone, anywhere.

Mission

They are a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a free world class education for anyone, anywhere.

Company Overview

Khan Academy was founded by Sal Khan who started making YouTube videos to help tutor his cousins in Math. Today, Khan Academy offers thousands of free instructional videos and hundreds of practice exercises at www.khanacademy.org

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They are a small team trying their best to improve the way the world learns. Too many people around the globe don’t have access to high quality educational materials, or are forced to learn through a system that doesn't allow them to learn at their own pace.

They think the technology exists today to fundamentally change this, and they are trying to build the tools and resources every learner deserves.

Innovation in Online Learning and changing Rules of Education

 

                   When Matthew Carpenter wants to push ahead, he can watch 

                    Khan Academy videos at home.

 

                 Kami Thordarson uses Khan Academy in her fifth-grade class.

                 Some kids are already learning calculus with it.

                                     

                                         In the new era of popular, YouTube-friendly education videos, Khan’s site is unique in that it’s ruthlessly practical: It’s aimed at helping people master the basics, the humble bread-and-butter equations they encounter in elementary and high school. Traditionally, these kinds of videos can be dry and difficult to slog through. But Khan manages to pull off his lessons with a casual air that keeps the viewer engaged. He says his relaxed approach isn’t faked—it’s a result of the way he prepares. He never writes a script. He simply researches a topic until he feels he can explain it off the cuff to “a motivated 7-year-old.” (Preparation can take anywhere from 10 minutes with a familiar subject like algebra to nearly a week in the case of organic chemistry.) Khan also never edits. Either he nails the lecture in a single take or he redoes the entire thing until it satisfies him.

                                                       Khan thought he could offer teachers crucial new insight into how students learn. He envisioned a dashboard system that would track students’ individual statistics, showing them and their instructors how many videos they’d watched, how many questions they’d answered, and which ones they’d gotten wrong or right. Normally, of course, teachers fly blind. They use quizzes, homework, and their own observations to try to figure out how much their students understand, but it’s a crude process. Day to day, it’s hard to know what a student is and isn’t learning. A dashboard, Khan says, can change all that.

Theory Y way of assuming the world

Free on-line academies like Khan won't continue to inflate the student debt bubble, but they need now to specify high-end populist quality results to go with their quantity of access.

The real barrier to educational quality on the mass public scale is not resistance to innovation but systemic poverty.

“People most effective at producing courseware in the future will have complete production studios staffed with video crews, interactive experts, gamification mavens, courseware experience specialists, usability teams, outcome testers, and much more.”

 

It's rather dumb Theory X rich-kid behavior to blame faltering Public U educational results on a lack of innovation rather than on a lack of money.  Money isn't the sufficient but it is the necessary condition to building the big complex project teams that Silicon Valley will now use as a market differentiator, not because it makes for better educational content but because it is their competitive advantage.

In turn, public universities should hold the Udacities of the world to Theory Y standards of creative educational outcomes--excellent staging yes, but mass creativity as the actual point..

Classical to Generation Y thinking

Khan Academy is very much like Windows itself: good enough. It helps students do their homework. It may even help them pass the end-of-year state tests. Indeed, the website is a wonderful resource for people looking to bone up on basic skills, and certainly makes good on its promise to “help you learn what you want, when you want.”

By all measures, Khan Academy offers substandard math instruction. It focuses exclusively on basic skills. It has no pedagogical underpinnings, yet we love it, and think it has the potential to revolutionize education. It’s nobody’s fault. We just don’t know any better. It’s the inevitable product of optimism and ignorance.

Khan Academy Spans Generations

Though many might think of the Khan Academy as a tool best used by grammar school or high school children, the digital tutorial forum has an expansive collection of videos for GMAT studies as well as those topics studied in med and nursing schools. Bill Gates was once one of Sal Khan's most famous pupils, according to CBS News. Gates said that Khan is the "teacher to the world" and has given us a glimpse of what possibilities the future holds for education

At the end:

	“Exponential growth + budget cuts = Khan Academy”