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Leadership and team (using Everest V3 simulation—HBP for Educators)

Presentation · July 2018

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Wesam H. Beitelmal
Dhofar University
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Agenda
• How to play?
• Start the simulation

Leadership and Team

• Debriefing
• The three Challenges
• Compare and comparison
• Analysis of results
• Lessons learned

Dr. Wesam H. Beitelmal

July 2018

Leadership and Team 2

HOW TO PLAY Overview

• You will hike in teams of 5 (with a possible 6th – an Observer).
• Each climber has unique goals as well as the common goal of
avoiding rescue.
• You have 6 days –one round per day– to reach the summit.
• Although you are hiking together, everyone submits their own hiking
Presenter Name
decisions each round.
• You will use specific resources and information provided to work
together as you attempt to summit Everest.

Step 2: Review the Data

Step 1: Your Profile • You can chat to your teammates using a
“walkie-talkie” via the chat window. Send
§ Read your role-specific profile
private messages or group messages.
information to learn about your
background and your reasons for hiking
the mountain.

§ This screen also

provides important
information about how
• Each team member is represented
your individual score
by an icon. You can track a
will be calculated.
member’s location on the Mountain
View screen.

• The dashboard provides high level information about

your current status. More detailed information is
available by clicking on the menu icons at the top of
the screen.

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Step 3: Enter Round Decisions Step 4: Review Round Info, and

Repeat Steps 2 & 3

§ When you’re ready to advance to the next Round,

each team member enters his/her OWN decisions
on the “Decide” screen. § When you advance to the next day, you’ll be
§ Decision choices will vary by role. automatically brought to the Round
§ The Round will advance once the Leader chooses Information screen.
“Advance to the Next Day”
§ Read this information carefully in each
Round.
§ Then repeat Steps 2 and 3.

Surveys: Round 3 and Round 6 Remember:

• You have six days (one round per day) to reach the summit.
§ Your instructor enables surveys to appear in Rounds 3 • Everyone has role-specific decisions to make and everyone submits
decisions each Round.
and 6.
• If someone’s health fails, he/she will be rescued.
§ Answer the questions individually rather than • If rescued, the individual will be brought back to Base Camp, but he/she
discussing with your team. can still communicate via “walkie-talkies” (chat) in order to continue to
assist the team.
• Be sure to review Round Information each round.
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• Good luck on your adventure!

START THE SIMULATION! DEBRIEFING

• Day 1 about 15 minutes
• Day 2 about 15 minutes
• Day 3 about 20 minutes
• Day 4 about 20 minutes
• Day 5 about 20 minutes
• Day 6 about 15 minutes

Leadership and Team 11 Leadership and Team 12

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Discussion ?’s:
Your Experience as a Team
Comparing & Contrasting Team Experience
• “Did our team perform effectively during the simulation? Why or First team
why not?” • How would you characterize your team’s experience during the
• Prompts: group & decision making process, use of expertise of each simulation?
member, dealing with conflicting goals, leader • What were the main challenges that you faced as you tried to climb the
mountain?
• “What were the impediments to team effectiveness?”
Other team
• “How did the leader help or hinder the group’s efforts to • How did your team’s experiences differ from those that were just
achieve its goals?” described?
• How would you revise your approach if you had another • What were the strengths and weaknesses of your team’s process for
making key decisions?
opportunity?

Leadership and Team 13 Leadership and Team 14

Discussion ?’s:
Discussion ?’s:
Compare & Contrast Team Experiences
• How did your team handle the fact that each member had some • Why do groups find it so difficult to deal with asymmetric information?
information not available to other team members?
• What causes individuals to feel hesitant about disclosing privately held
• Did your team share information effectively to make decisions? information?
• Did anyone fail to share all privately held information? Why/ why not? • How did your leader help or hinder the group’s ability to uncover and
analyze all relevant information?
• What are the barriers to disclosing and discussing privately held
information?

Leadership and Team 15 Leadership and Team 16

Common Information Effect Common Information Effect

• Based on Stasser’s research on pooling information, information held Groups tend to spend too little time discussing unshared
(unique, uncommon) information.
by more members before team discussion has more influence on team
Three Possible Initial-Distribution Conditions
judgments than information held by fewer members, independent of the
A,C,B,D
validity of the information. A,D A,B,C,D,E,F

A,C,B,E A,B,C,D,E,F
B,E A,C,D,F A,B,C,D,E,F
C,F

A,C: Common to all three people

No overlap of information All information fully-shared
B,D: Shared by two people
between three people by all three people.
E,F: Unique to one person
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Leadership and Team 17 Leadership and Team 18

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Process Loss: Pooling of Information But…

• Common Information Effect: Groups tend to discuss information that
each member has in common and spend less time disclosing and
analyzing information that is privately held by a particular team member.
• Only discussing shared information harms decision quality and leads to a
less optimal decision alternative, whereas tapping into unshared
information supports the best option.
• Failure to discuss unshared info thus harms group decision quality

Leadership and Team 19 Leadership and Team 20

Common Information Effect Common Information Effect

What does not work: What does work:
• More discussion • Team leader is information manager
• Bigger team • Increase focus on unique information
• More information (but same distribution) • Suspend initial judgment
• Accountability for decision • Frame as an information-sharing problem, rather than a judgment to be
• Pre-discussion polling made
• Minimize status differences

Leadership and Team 21 Leadership and Team 22

Leading the Process

The Team Leader …

“shapes how the team works by managing its work process. In that manner,
the leader is very directive and is pushing the team toward high
performance, but does that through management of the process, rather than
taking a position on all of the elements of the team’s work.”

Reprinted with permission. “Managing the Team at the Top” by

David A. Nadler from the Winter 1996 issue of strategy+business,
published by Booz & Company.
Copyright 1996. All rights reserved. www.strategy-business.com

Source: Harvard Business Review

Leadership and Team 23 Leadership and Team 24

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Why Does the Discussion Bias Occur? Analysis of Results

• Probability Point system
• Mutual Enhancement
• Discussing shared information feels good
• Members are judged as more task competent & credible after discussing shared
instead of unshared information
• Shared information is judged as more important, accurate, and decision-relevant than
unshared info.
• Bias for Preference-consistent Information
• Members prefer to discuss information that is consistent with their preferences

Leadership and Team 25 Leadership and Team 26

Results 3 Key Challenges

Round 2: Medical Challenge
• Environmentalist needs an asthma inhaler, no need to stop
Round 3: Weather Challenge
• Should stay in Camp 3, the weather at Camp 4 are hazardous
Round 4: Oxygen Challenge
• Need to distribute oxygen canisters

Leadership and Team 27 Leadership and Team 28

Discussion ?’S Information/Interest Asymmetry

First team • Information Asymmetry: Team members have distinct, unshared
• Why do you think your team achieved more of its goals than the other information
groups in the class? To what do you attribute your success? • Interest Asymmetry: Team members have divergent goals
• What was your team’s approach to the 3 challenges embedded in the
simulation?
Heterogeneity yields divergent thinking and a broader base of information,
resulting in better choice.
Other team
• Why do you think you obtained a lower score?

Leadership and Team 29 Leadership and Team 30

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Information/Interest Asymmetry Team Synergy

Reasons for suboptimal information sharing: “None of us is as smart as all of us”
• Take for granted your knowledge, not realizing that others do not
• Crowd has wisdom only if members of the group have opportunity to
possess the same knowledge
influence group decisions.
• Lack of psychological safety may cause some team members to
• Process Losses: when group’s actual performance falls short of its
remain silent
potential performance.
• Group Think, Lack of knowledge of how to handle information and
interest asymmetries effectively, Unproductive conflict (affective conflict)

Leadership and Team 31 Leadership and Team 32

Cohesive Teams & Process Loss Analysis of Results

• Sometimes, highly cohesive teams whose members focus on achieving
harmony and consensus may not produce good decisions– did this occur
Survey results
for anyone?
• Groupthink (Irving Janis’ research)
• Teams can misperceive their effectiveness (harmonious group process,
but subpar results)

Leadership and Team 33 Leadership and Team 34

Survey Constructs, Results, Comparison Discussion ?’S

• Why did you rate your team experience as highly effective or ineffective?
• What was one example of when decision-making became more difficult
for your team?
• What could have been done to improve the group process?

Leadership and Team 35 Leadership and Team 36

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Lessons Learned Psychological Safety

• Psychological Safety: Shared belief within a team that the climate is

safe for interpersonal risk-taking.

• Low PS (process loss) on a team causes members to worry that they

will marginalized if they speak up, etc… Members may also “play close
to their chest” and advance their own interests/agendas

• High PS has been found to be primary determining factor in low vs high

performing teams (Google)

Leadership and Team 37 Leadership and Team 38

Improving Psychological Safety Discussion ?’S

• Leaders acknowledge their own fallibility (admit mistakes, etc.) • Did your teams exhibit high levels of psychological safety? Why or why
• Minimize status differences not?
• Set appropriate tone • Did anyone find themselves holding back during group discussions,
• Suspend initial judgment perhaps reluctant to share their information or views?
• Frame as information-sharing problem, rather than a judgment to be • Did anyone make a mistake or need help during the simulation and find it
made uncomfortable disclosing that error to others or requesting assistance?
• Encourage multiple channels of communication
• Balance Power
• Celebrate instances of courageous behavior
• Leader may leave at key points

Leadership and Team 39 Leadership and Team 40

Managing Asymmetric Information Managing Asymmetric Information

• Check on “air time” of members • Dialectical Inquiry Method: Create two subgroups to generate
• “Clarify” Questions and “Reinforcing” play back statements to make sure alternatives, exchange proposals, and critique one another’s ideas
they have been heard • Devils Advocates more people out of their entrenched positions, help
• Balance powerful influencers them gain a better appreciation for disagreement, surface divergent and
critical thinking.
• Leaders engagement in active listening increases perceptions of
procedural justice, which enhances effectiveness
• Leaders need to be directive with group process (spend time “deciding
how to decide”)

Leadership and Team 41 Leadership and Team 42

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Procedural Justice Managing Affective Conflict

• Team members are more willing to accept decisions if they believe that • Team Culture: Be clear on appropriate behavior
• Reinforce and support desirable behavior
the process for arriving at the decision was fair and equitable.
• Ground discussions in current data to minimize personal nature
• Fair process gives everyone voice, demonstrates genuine consideration • Empowering or sharing power across team members
for everyone's views, giving each person an opportunity to influence the • Ensure team goals are commonly held

final outcome and explain the rationale for the final decision.

Leadership and Team 43 Leadership and Team 44

What Lessons Did You Learn? Learning Objectives

• Information and interest asymmetries exist
• Organizations/teams have members with different sources of information &/or partially
conflicting goals.
• Process losses rise with asymmetries:
• Social pressures for conformity
• Dysfunctional political behavior
• High levels of affective conflict
• Value-creating vs. Value-claiming behaviors
• Information processing challenges (relevant and too much)
• Creating a climate of psychological safety is paramount (leader)
• Teams should follow procedural Justice with decision-making process (ex.
short vs. long term effectiveness)

Leadership and Team 45 Leadership and Team 46

Determinants of Group Performance

Inputs Process Outputs Thanks for your participation and discussion!
Individual Group Productivity
Characteristics of Group Structure Group Routines Creativity
Group Members • Equality vs. hierarchy • Norms Quality
• Roles, division of labor • Patterns of influence Efficiency
• Homogeneity vs. heterogeneity • Communication
Situational and
environmental Group Experience
factors Cohesion
Individual growth

Organization Gains
Market Share
Profitability
Return on Investment
Reputation

Leadership and Team 47 Leadership and Team 48

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1. What are the interesting things in the workshop?

2. What are the worst things in the workshop?
3. What could be changed to make it better?

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