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Lessons from Everest
Topics: Research-AnalysisEducation-Business EducationEnvironment-Natural EnvironmentFifty years ago, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to stand atop Mount Everest, a symbol of challenge and achievement whose allure some would call it a fatal attraction has only increased since then. A week before the anniversary of Hillary and Norgays milestone, even as scores of hopeful climbers were trying to duplicate their feat, Assistant Professor Michael Roberto discussed his research into the tragic Everest events of 1996. In May of that year, eight individuals perished in a single day while attempting to conquer the worlds highest peak. The victims were part of a relatively recent phenomenon organized adventures in which companies escort small groups of clients, willing to pay some $60,000 each, to try to summit the mountain.
From his intellectual base camp in Hawes Hall, Roberto examined the Everest disaster through three theoretical lenses: behavioral-decision theory, group dynamics, and complex systems. The problems that occurred at each of these levels were mutually reinforcing, Roberto said. Key contributors to the disaster may have been overconfidence based on recent successful ascents; an inability to ignore sunk costs; the groups failure to act as a true team; and a lack of psychological safety, a group dynamic that emboldens individual members to ask questions, admit mistakes, and express dissent. Ultimately, a failure to question leadership coupled with the overwhelming desire of nearly all group members, for various reasons, to reach the summit undermined the better judgment of professionals and amateurs alike. A lesson for leaders, Roberto noted, is that even the most qualified and experienced people can make mistakes. Yet experts are often deferred to when critical decisions must be made. One danger with groups, he said, is that experts are often wrong.
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