Answer:
There is a place above all others, where dreams are realized in the clouds, the place where only the strong and lucky survive, where it is almost impossible for the human body to battle with fierce winds and sub-zero temperatures. Every breath burns the lungs mercilessly like cold fire. Many have died there; only a few have survived to tell their story. Welcome to Mount Everest.
Mount Everest, the World’s tallest peak located in city of Kathmandu, Nepal soaring in height of about 8850m (Anon n.d.), has attracted climbers from all over the world with the aim to reach the top, with the recognition they would receive after summiting the mountain being their main source of motivation. The peak is named after Sir George Everest, the British surveyor general of India. The first successful attempt to the summit was done by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on 20th May in 1953 (Anon n.d.). Since then many climbers have been successful in their ascent to Mount Everest.
The year 1996 is said to be the worst year for the climbers at Everest, being struck with storms for many days which led to the tragic death of 15 climbers near the summit, with few of them yet to reach the summit and some on their way back to descent (Kayes 2008).
The experiences and tragedies of earlier climbers teach us that climbing Everest is all about leadership and teamwork; being part and parcel of a cohesive team and working as indivisible unit if at all possible. With modern technology, the gathering and analyzing of information about Everest is many times better than it was with the early expeditions; climbing equipment and clothing are all state of the art. What has not changed though is teamwork; the lack of which will lead to certain disaster.
Our team was collaboration by chance whereby the team members were chosen at random by the module leader with objective of reaching the peak of Mount Everest safely. Our group consisted of 6 members namely Osama, Hemant, Irfan, Martha, Obi and I. Members of the group exhibited different talents required to work as a team and achieve the stated objective. Because some members of the group already knew each other, there was some degree of pre-existing mutual understanding and cohesiveness. Once the objective was clearly explained with all the facts, the group was set to work
Our first task was to consolidate the team despite a bit of familiarity amongst some members. According to Tuckman’s (1965) team development model, groups pass through four stages of development on their way to becoming a high performing unit.
Luckily, most of us have had the experience of working with each other which made it easy for us to interact and get along. It was only the matter of bonding Obi with the group because of his personality traits. After knowing the background of each one in the group it was realised that the group had immense talent and members having expertise in various areas
On the first day of group formation, slight unhappiness was seen amongst Hemant and Irfan over other team members, especially Martha and Obi because of some personal differences. Otherwise, Osama and I were being social, interacting with all the group members except Obi who was shy and a bit of an introvert. It took us a while to settle down and gell as a team. Hemant and Irfan, due to the fact that they knew each already, were very close and wanted things their way which was not always accepted by the rest of the team.