Shipwreck exercise

You are the captain of a ship. A fire on board has destroyed the radio. From the rate the water is rising inside the ship you estimate that it will sink in between two hours and two and a half hours. You did not tell the authorities of your destination.

It will take about 45 minutes to launch the only boat and it will take 15 minutes for each person to be lowered into the boat and they can only go one at a time. They can’t jump as the water is shark infested. The nearest land is an uninhabited tropical island 30 km distant.

 

Task

 

Your task is to decide which people will enter the boat. Everyone has agreed to abide by your decision. Items held by individuals must stay with the owner; they cannot be transferred to other people.

 

PASSENGER/CREW LIST

• Captain: age 57. Married three times; five children aged between 5 and 27. His youngest child has Down’s syndrome. Drinks and smokes heavily. Plays the accordion. Carries a bottle of rum.
• Ship’s engineer: married; accompanied by his pregnant wife. His heroism in fighting the fire has given his fellow-passengers time to launch the lifeboat but he has sustained severe burns. Carries a shaving mirror.
• Radio operator: ex-Israeli Navy. Brought up on an agricultural kibbutz. A fitness fanatic and champion kickboxer. He escaped the fire which destroyed his radio as he was on deck trying to impress the food scientist with a display of his kickboxing skills at the time. Carries a length of rope.
• Cook: a former Special Forces officer reduced to working as a cook after being court-martialled following an unfortunate incident involving a torpedo and a presidential yacht. Carries a knife.
• Anglican priest: a Philosophy graduate who taught English as a foreign language in South America for several years before returning to her home town to look after her disabled mother (now aged 85) with whom she still lives. Trained as a counsellor and was ordained in 1990. Carries a first aid kit.
• Diving instructor: After 20 years as a stockbroker in London , he has just moved to Tahiti to set up his own diving school. Divorced, with a son at boarding school in Wales . Goes grouse-shooting in Yorkshire every August. Carries a signed copy of the final Harry Potter novel.
• Indian ship’s carpenter: Married with four children aged between six months and seven years old. Was convicted of violent affray following a demonstration in Mumbai ten years ago. Writes poetry and has had two poems published in Indian literary magazines. Has a magnifying glass.
• French Botany student: Lived in the Brazilian rainforest for eighteen months while carrying out Ph.D. research into plants that can be used in anti-cancer drugs: these are now undergoing testing by a major multinational pharmaceutical company. Voted for Le Pen in the last election. Has a rifle.
• Retired soldier. Recently registered a civil partnership with his long-term partner, a 45-year old political journalist. Together, they have campaigned for improved healthcare for soldiers wounded in Iraq. Carries a compass.
• Food scientist. A vegetarian whose research centres on developing plant-based, low-cholesterol alternatives to meat. She has been involved in a number of demonstrations against the use of animals in medical research. Carries a box of Mars bars.
• Came to Scotland eight years ago as a teenage refugee from Sudan who spoke no English on arrival. Gained 6 GCSEs and has recently qualified as a nurse. A devout Muslim who plans to complete the Haj next year. Carries a box of matches.
• Ship’s engineer’s wife: Aged 35 and about to begin maternity leave from her work as a medical sales representative. Due to give birth to their first child in 4 months time. For some reason known only to herself she happens to be carrying a fishing line and hook.
• Bank manager: Lives in a village in Sussex : Guide leader, parish councillor and president of the local allotment society in spare time. Has £50,000 in used £10 notes carried in a small suitcase.

 

 

Reaching a consensus in this type of exercise

 

• Consensus is hard to achieve but much better to argue with logic than to use a majority vote.
• Avoid win-lose stalemates: everyone needs to buy in to the eventual solution if possible.
• View differences of opinion as creative: the more ideas the more potential for conflict, but also the richer the pool of resources to choose from.
• Be careful of reaching agreement too soon, before all options have been carefully considered.
• Try to argue your case calmly and with logic: appreciate the views of others even if different from your own.

 

Recruiting the right candidate

 

From the exercise, who would you choose as the right candidate/s to go through to the next stage of recruitment for the retail store manager vacancy.  Explain your answer?