DESCRIPTION

In this collaborative, multiplayer simulation, participants explore group dynamics, leadership and team decision-making in a challenging expedition towards the summit of Mount Everest.

Participants assume five different roles on an assigned team. Each participant is given resources and information that his or her team must process effectively to make a series of critical decisions about the timing and execution of hiking along successive camps in the team’s ascent to the summit.

During each round of play, team members can discuss, share, process, and analyze information about health conditions, weather, supplies, resources, and other factors delivered to their screens. Then, team members must decide whether to try to hike to the next higher camp or stay in their current camp and how to effectively distribute supplies amongst them. These group decisions will affect speed, health, and ultimately the team’s success in summiting the mountain.

In summiting the mountain, participants practice how teams make complex decisions when critical information is distributed unevenly among members and when members have partially conflicting goals. They discover that information privately held by individual team members, rather than shared by all, is often ignored or downplayed in team decisions, to the detriment of team performance. They learn that team success depends on the degree to which interests and information are made transparent. Failure to accurately communicate and analyze information has drastic consequences on team performance.