Details

“Summit Day - Climbing Mount Everest” hosted by Princeton Outdoor Action

Bring your spirit of adventure as your group embarks on a climb of Mount Everest, through a virtual, online simulation developed by the Harvard Business School. You will be part of a team that starts together at basecamp and must make decisions together to progress up to the summit. Like any OA group, you will have to work together to accomplish this fun and challenging task!

Assemble Your TeamStudents can register in teams of 4-6 people. Individuals or partial groups are welcome to register, and we will do our best to find a spot for you on a team. Feel free to recruit others to your team!

Leadership and Team Simulation:  Mt. Everest Simulator

This award-winning simulation, created by Harvard Business School, uses the dramatic context of a Mount Everest expedition to reinforce student learning in group dynamics and leadership. Students play one of 5 roles on a team of climbers attempting to summit the mountain. During each round of play, they must collectively discuss whether to attempt the next camp en route to the summit. Ultimately, teams must climb through 5 camps in 6 simulated days totaling approximately 1.5 actual hours of seat time. Team members analyze information on weather, health conditions, supplies, goals, and hiking speed, and determine how much of that information to communicate to their teammates. Along the journey, the team must also make decisions in response to 3 hidden challenges which affect their ascent, hiking speed, health, and overall success.

Learning Objective

To learn how to build, participate in, and lead effective teams, as well as to examine:

1. How teams can improve the way they make decisions

2. How opposing interests and asymmetric information affect team dynamics

3. How leaders shape team decision-making and performance in competitive and time-sensitive situations

4. How teams and their leaders deal with tradeoffs between short-term task completion and longer-term team effectiveness

5. How cognitive biases impair decision making