10/25/2016

CorporateLeadersCanLearnFromHimalayanClimbersWSJ

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BUSINESS | MANAGEMENT | MANAGEMENT & CAREERS

Corporate Leaders Can Learn From
Himalayan Climbers

Workplace teams can hurt their effectiveness when they play down individuals important
differences to promote group cooperation, a study finds

MountaineersattheHillaryStepwhilepushingforthesummitofMountEverestin2009.Astudyof38,818Himalayan
climbersinvolvedin5,214expeditionsalongthemountainrangethatincludesMountEverestfoundthatgroupsthat
overlookedmembersnationalitiesinassemblingtheirteamshadgreatersuccessreachingthesummitsofmountains.
PHOTO:PEMBADORJESHERPA/AFP/GETTYIMAGES

By JOANN S. LUBLIN
Updated Oct. 19, 2016 12:23 a.m. ET

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10/25/2016

CorporateLeadersCanLearnFromHimalayanClimbersWSJ

How is climbing the corporate ladder like reaching the summit of Mount Everest?
For managers keen to succeed by building diverse teams, nearly seven decades of tragic
climbing deaths on the worlds highest mountain range offer a cautionary tale:
Corporate teams may hurt their effectiveness when they play down individuals
important differences to promote group cooperation.
That finding emerges from an unpublished study of 38,818 Himalayan climbers involved
in 5,214 expeditions along the mountain range that stretches across several countries
and includes Mount Everest, which is roughly 29,000 feet above sea level. Groups that
overlooked members nationalities in assembling their teams had greater success
reaching the summits of Himalayan mountains. But more climbers died during
expeditions when their group ignored differences in critical skills, including members
Himalayan climbing experience.
Cohesive teamwork is a huge fad in corporate America, with diverse teams often
assembled to solve complex problems, said the papers lead author, Jennifer Chatman, a
management professor for the Haas School of Business at University of California at
Berkeley. Yet many bosses have trouble leading diverse groups because they feel
uncomfortable working with people different from them, she said.
Ms. Chatman urged business team leaders to emphasize the differences that are
relevant and de-emphasize the differences that are distracting.
For their research, Ms. Chatman and co-authors Eliot L. Sherman and Bernadette Doerr
scrutinized detailed records in the Himalayan Database, a compilation of attempted
ascents between 1950 and 2013.
Whether a climbing group reached a summit heavily depended on how members
handled their differences. Researchers tracked climbers from 80 countries and observed
how groups that overlooked climbers various nationalities in pursuing their goal were
most likely to get to the mountaintop.
Nationality has no connection to how good a climber you are, Ms. Chatman observed.
On the other hand, a dangerous pattern emerged when groups failed to heed the extent
of members experience climbing the Himalayan mountains. Some climbers had scaled
those mountains at least 10 times. But 61% of ascents were attempted by a climber with
no previous climbs in the region, the study stated.
More climbers died on expeditions with different levels of Himalayan experience when
the group emphasized cohesion and failed to recognize the presence of novices with
limited capabilities. Ms. Chatman called this a perfect recipe for tragedy.
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CorporateLeadersCanLearnFromHimalayanClimbersWSJ

The researchers confirmed their climbing data analysis by simulating a mountain

expedition in a laboratory setting. Participants decided how to allocate portable oxygen
canisters and whether to take a hazardous but more direct route to the peakor a
slightly longer, less risky one that an experienced team member recommended.
In Ms. Chatmans view, both sets of results offer important lessons for companies.
Managers should be careful about how much they encourage teams to be cohesive
because it can blind them to the very diversity thats there, she said.
Work groups also should figure out which diverse attributes are relevant to a particular
assignment and preserve those that are useful, the study said.
At the same time, Ms. Chatman urged business teams to pay less attention to highly
visible attributes such as race, nationality or gender because those are typically not
closely related to task accomplishment.

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