Valley Crossing

What exactly is Valley Crossing problem?

As shown in the figure, 3 people have to cross the valley which is more than 1 step long but less than 2 steps long. Also they have to carry the rod along with them. At any time all three people will be holding the rod. When the first person will come exactly on the top of the valley, he will be hanging and other 2 will be holding them. Similarly it will happen for the other two people when they will come exactly at the top of the valley.

Analysis and steps to execute this task:

One thing has to be realized here is that each of the three people here have equal responsibilities and also their roles are same. Each one of them will be exposing to the same level of risk.

Trust is the most important factor to make this task complete. Because if people don’t have trust between themselves, they will in fear before going for risk involved.

Steps:

1.      When the first person will take the first step, he will be half risky since one of his feet will be in air and other on the ground, at the same time other two people will be full safe.

2.      Everybody will take one more step at this moment, first person will be fully risky and other two will be full safe. But since other two people will be holding the rod, with proper communication and trust they can cross.

3.      This process will be repeated for other two persons. Every time they will be either half risky or full risky.

Three wise men Crossing the valley  - Detailed task process

Persons	First Person	Second Person	Third person
Steps
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

A.  Safe  - Both the legs  of the person  have full  support

B.  Half Risky – One leg in the air and the other leg has support

C.  Full risky  -  Both the legs are  in the air without any support

D.  Half risky  – One leg is in the air and the other leg has support

E.  Safe  - Both the legs   have full  support

Lessons learnt from the task:

1.      Responsibility:

Everybody in the organization is equally responsible, no matter if he/she is the higher manager, manager or the engineer/ worker. Because if suppose engineer will not be able to do his job properly then not only he will be in the risk but there is the chance that the manager and the higher manager will be also be in the risk. And finally the task will not be completed.

2.      Trust

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The organization cannot be successful if there is no element of trust in it. As in the case of valley problem, persons can take the risk to cross the valley only since they trust the other two. Similarly for the organization to be successful, managers and workers have to follow the Theory X which tells the people or managers have trust on the other people or employees.

3.      Proper Communication:

The people will not be able to cross the valley if there will not be any proper communication among them. Each one has to communicate properly when they are going to take step over the valley so that other two can plan accordingly.  Similarly, in the organization there has to be the proper communication between each and every channels of the hierarchy. Otherwise it might have the problem in the timely completion of the project and it might affect the quality also.

4.      Coordination:

Coordination is the important factor in making the crossing successful as everybody have to make sure each and every take equal width of the steps and also when the person in entering into half risk zone of the full risk zone.

In the organization also, the task is generally divided into the subtasks. People work on these subtasks and finally the whole task is completed. If there is no proper coordination among the employees, it might cause unexpected delay.

In the end

I would like to say that no matter whatever task you have to make is successfully the most important factors are trust, proper communication, coordination and responsibility/