I’m 12 years old and recently passed the Harvard Mt. Everest Leadership Simulation, which 53% of Harvard Business School students fail. How?
I attend a program called Prequel, where every few months there’s a new mission with various challenges to complete. It may be emailing the CEO of a company or creating a custom Flappy Bird game using ChatGPT. The latest Prequel Mission in my cohort was all about leadership, and the challenge was to pass the Mount Everest Simulation put out by Harvard Business Publishing, which all first year Harvard MBA business school students are required to take. The Mt. Everest Simulation replicates the various conditions climbers must overcome as they summit Mount Everest. And trust me, there were plenty of obstacles to overcome.
My mission was to complete the simulation with a team composed of four of my classmates as well as one “sherpa” (in this case, one of my instructors, JP, performed the role of sherpa). I was really happy with my team assignment—my teammates were from many different places, but we communicated almost seamlessly. I’ll tell you how we built our communication skills further in the blog.
Every individual team member has a role (e.g., physician, leader, marathoner, environmentalist, photographer) and their own set of goals (e.g., avoiding rescue, predicting the weather, staying extra days, etc.). The way you pass the simulation is by completing as many of the team’s goals as possible. My team passed with 91% of our goals completed; we were only missing three.
So, how did five middle schoolers who've never met in-person with one “sherpa” pass a Harvard MBA simulation on our first try?
Team Preparation: Games, Roles, and Strategies
This simulation taught my team and me some serious collaborative communication skills.
Preparations were simple: we played video games! My class meets once per week, and for this mission every few weeks we were introduced to new games, resources, and challenges. None of them were ‘specially designed’ or made for the Everest Simulation, but they helped us work on our teamwork and communication skills in fun and creative ways.
For example, in Minecraft my team and I worked hard to build as tall a tower as possible within the limitations of survival mode. It helped teach us that we could be a lot more efficient by splitting up the tasks (like having one person collect materials, another build the tower, and one more make ladders). These were all equally important jobs, and after we decided who was going to do what, each person knew exactly what they needed to do to help the team, and we worked much more effectively. Good leaders always know when to split up the tasks to help get the work done.
Minecraft is a game I already knew, but we got to learn several others as well, including games like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (staying calm under pressure), Reigns (effective communication), Unrailed (splitting tasks under pressure), and more. My brother was so jealous. In each of the different games, we were required to work in teams and effectively navigate challenges together. Throughout the sessions, it became apparent that some of my classmates were better at completing tasks, while others had strengths in communication or leadership roles. It was fun learning so much about the kids I’m in class with.
Team leaders should do what they can to learn about their teammates and their strengths so that they know who should do what job based on their strengths and weaknesses.
Overcoming Obstacles
As the Everest Simulation date approached, we were assigned teams with specific roles. I was assigned leader of my team, which made me nervous but excited.
The week before the Everest Simulation we had a practice round that was rather challenging. My team and I had amazing communication through this mini-simulation, but we didn’t pay enough attention to the Day Info Page (which required that we complete a challenge that we hadn't seen because we didn't know to look for it), leading to one of our team members having to be rescued from the mountain. Our sherpa was just as confused as we were after it happened, and it took a while for us to figure out what the problem was.
After we realized we had missed reading important information, we immediately made a team Google Doc and put a list of 12 steps to do every day in the simulation so that we’d be able to check and make sure we weren’t missing anything during the actual simulation. During the real challenge, the Google Doc worked flawlessly and helped to alert us when we were missing something or going through the information too fast. This shows that adaptability and problem-solving are key characteristics of a strong team. Without these skills, we would have had a completely different strategy that wouldn't have been very reliable.
This practice taught me and my team how important it is to take your time and pay attention to all the details. If you don’t take a close look at all the aspects of the task at hand, you may end up missing a vital part of the puzzle. Getting to practice skills like problem-solving is essential for all teams. Without this knowledge, you won’t be able to adapt to unexpected challenges lurking in the dark.
Climbing The Virtual Peak
Now, it was time for the real deal! I learned a lot of lessons from this simulation. In the beginning, I thought simply climbing Mount Everest was tough enough. But then the simulation threw college-level math equations at my team! I didn’t see this one coming! Part of a ladder had broken down, and we had to solve an equation that would provide us with the measurement for the amount of rope we would need for the repair. Each team member had unique information that was vital for solving the equation, so we had to work together to get the correct measurements so we could decide whether to continue our climb. As the team leader, I had to collect all the information from everyone and make sure no one was speaking over each other. Thankfully, our sherpa provided us with a Google Sheet that assisted us with some of the upper-level math, so we were able to get the correct answer.
It’s important for leaders to be able to guide their team through a crisis (like that of the unexpected math). To do this, you must calm your team and organize people’s thoughts to come together and collectively solve a problem.
Another challenge for my team (and especially our physician) was to decide which of our limited medicines to give to which person because, let’s face it, none of us were professional doctors. No one knew the difference between an Acetazolamide pill (which I’m still unsure as to what it does or even how to pronounce it) and a Gamow bag. One of our teammates was constantly sick, and our physician took great pains to do her best and find cures. Fortunately, she was able to meet her goals and not get rescued. The hardest thing about debating medicine was having the knowledge that all our supplies were limited. It’s important to thoroughly debate resource management (especially when there are limited supplies) so you can make an informed decision on when you want to risk using your scarce medical supplies.
Despite these difficulties, we took our time, and with much effort, conquered all of the challenges and passed without a single person getting rescued. I am proud to have been part of such an amazing team!
Reflections and What We Learned from the Everest Experience
Teamwork and collaboration: that’s what the simulation was meant to teach. I think it’s vital for kids to learn these skills, whether by working toward a collective goal in Minecraft, making your own version of the Mt. Everest Challenge, or attending Prequel to practice skills like these and many more. During this simulation, I not only learned about leadership, but I also learned about the importance of taking your time, being prepared, calm, and effective in communication. This was a memorable experience for me and super fun. I hope to continue to work with my same teammates and learn new things in our next mission (hint: it’s all about communication)!
Thinking of trying the Harvard Mount Everest Challenge for yourself? Here are my tips:
Make a Google Doc (or other kind of page) with medical supply information and lessons learned in your notes.
Divide out roles and tasks among your team (like maybe the physician has the task of remembering to ask everyone about their health every day).
Take your time and ensure you aren't missing anything.
Double-check that everyone on your team is in agreement before making big decisions.
Enjoy yourself and have confidence in your team!
To me, being a team leader means that you have to do your best to make smart decisions that don’t just benefit you but help your entire team. This may mean that as the leader you have to make some sacrifices for the good of the other team members (like how I weighed the importance of my team members' goals against my own goals). I loved getting to have this experience, and to those of you who plan on trying out the simulation, I hope you have fun and good luck!