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The Expedition
We met several obstacles such as very bad weather, which saw two local porters from another team dying
elsewhere on the mountain. We also had route-finding problems which forced us to switch our goal to the
Western Breach face. At these stages the QO2TM
Profiles were helpful, as was the balance in the team.
Our team was evenly balanced between the somewhat cautiously optimistic goal-seekers, and the other half, a
decidedly more 'gung-ho' group. This proved to be useful whenever Paul
(QO2TM 3.7)
waxed optimistically in spite of bad weather and ill-health. It helped balance our emotional yo-yoing
as the expedition faced some really bad weather. For Paul, it helped him believe he could succeed on this climb,
despite a retreat at one stage from fluid in his lungs, the potentially lethal condition known as Pulmonary Edema.
The higher Fault-Finding scores of Peter and myself assisted by giving measured views of the risks and
obstacles ahead. When Jamie and Paul remained extremely optimistic (Jamie's Optimism score was 73%;
Paul's Optimism score was 95%!), I knew where they were coming from. This, combined with a lot of 'thrusting'
and encouragement from Jamie (the group's Thruster-Organiser), helped us to resolve obstacles along the
way and keep the team moving towards its goal. As overall expedition coordinator, my knowledge of
TMS helped me assess situations and decisions in the expedition. For example, I would not have appreciated Jamie's
'just do it' tendency unless I was privy to his Profile.
My own high MTG Energy was a match to Paul's 97% score and this, I believe, kept us plodding ahead regardless
of setbacks. Despite the catastrophic personal losses we suffered collectively, our Time Focus focused in the
present. The nature of strenuous expeditions means often looking at ever-changing resources and scenarios.
We lived day by day.
At a critical stage of the expedition, we decided that our original goal to climb the peak, unsupported on the
summit push, had to be given up. The route-finding was to prove too difficult with our disabilities, and the
bad visibility meant we had to switch our goal to an easier route, the Western Brach. That being said, the
Breach route is hard to reverse, and is the most difficult of all the normal routes. It also required some
scrambling over terrain no less than 45 degrees, and some exposed sections. With heavy snow, the outcome was
uncertain. Our problem-solving abilities were measured under the Multi-Pathways subscale. Mine was 81%,
as was Paul's while Jamie's was 83% and Peter's was 69%. With a rather high score, we found it a breeze to
look at our resources, size up the options, and make the decisions to bring us victory - and that was to complete
the climb together, as a team.
We communicated unreservedly about what we could not physically do, owing to our disabilities. So Paul eventually
climbed without a rucksack, his balance being poor. Peter, having the only pair of good hands among the four of us,
carried the rope and gave Paul a safety belay with it on the short, steep sections. I kept fixing Jamie's crampon
straps on the summit climb. One underestimation on my part on the final stretch was the ability of Paul to make the
last 300 meters up the soft and steep snow of the volcano's rim. He looked exhausted. But with a 97% MTG Energy
score, Paul doggedly kept at it and was the last to make the summit at 3pm that day. I had ignored his
QO2TM Profile for
a moment earlier, and was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong.
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Reflection
We summated Kilimanjaro on January 18th at about 3pm, and struggled through a long and arduous 24-hour summit day
before arriving back at our campsite at 12:30am the next day.
The Voltaren Kilimanjaro Challenge was one of the most harmonious, if not the happiest, expeditions that I have
ever put together. The Profiles helped in our success. Being able to leverage the various strengths of certain
team members in different scenarios was important to our climb.
The Kilimanjaro climb was a powerful application of the Profiles to help a team understand each other's
differences in the realm of risk-taking and, an affirmation that sometimes, extreme altitudes demand extreme
attitudes - if the goal is to be met.
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About the Author
David Lim is best known in Singapore for leading the 1st Singapore Mt Everest
Expedition in 1998 which succeeded in placing two members on the summit. The climb captured the
imagination of the entire country and helped reset the parameters of what could be achieved by the
small, flat, tropical island nation.
A week after his return from Everest, he was totally paralyzed by the rare nerve
disorder Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Artificially ventilated for 42 days, he spent six months in hospital
before returning home, partially disabled. Though he was permanently disabled in both legs, he made a
dramatic comeback to climbing the world's great mountains, and returned once more to Everest in 2001.
David was educated in Singapore and Britain; and graduated with a law degree from Magdalene College,
Cambridge University. In the corporate world, David spent nearly a decade in the media industry with
positions in marketing, journalism management and multimedia. David is author of Mountain to Climb and
Against Giants.
He heads Everest Motivation Team, an organization delivering programs designed to bring
out the best in teams through a combination of coaching, cognitive behaviour profiling, and adventure-based
experiential learning. David and his team have delivered programs and keynote presentations in 21 countries
and 40 cities worldwide.
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Conclusion
Adaptability to change in adverse conditions simply amplifies the need to utilise all available resources to
the maximum. Two invaluable personal and team develop profiles, as shown in the foregoing article, are the
Team Management Profile (TMP) and the
QO2TM
(Opportunities-Obstacles Quotient). They enable teams and
individuals to maximise their potential in changing times. Are the teams you can influence maximising their potential?
Further Information