Inspire by Tom Wujec, an innovative practitioner of business visualization, this challenge is about team building and inclusion; it’s an analogy for business model assumptions, experimentation, and iteration.
Each group works to build the tallest tower, they can using only the provided materials:
20 Spaghetti Sticks
1 Marshmallow
1 yard String
1 yard Tape
With only 18 minutes to build their towers, teams often follow a similar construction timeline:
3 minutes : Figuring out who is in charge
10 minutes : Planning
4 minutes : Taping spaghetti together
1 minute : Putting their marshmallow on top
1 second : Watching the tower crumble under the (surprising) weight of the marshmallow
The point of this first iteration is to experience the failure that comes from not testing their assumptions. People often assume:
- Marshmallows are light
- Uncooked spaghetti is rigid enough to hold up a marshmallow
Most of the time, they find out these assumptions are incorrect far too late into the exercise to do anything to correct them.
This challenge has been completed by a wide range of people and the average tower height is 20 inches tall.
What’s most interesting is that some people consistently perform better. While career professionals often struggle, there’s one group of people who do particularly well:
“The Kindergardners or Kids”
Why Do Kindergarteners or Kids Build Better?
*** Because they don’t make assumptions! They don’t know that marshmallows are supposed to be light and uncooked spaghetti is supposed to be rigid, so the first thing they do is stick the marshmallow on the spaghetti and see what happens.
*** In other words, kindergartners don’t know enough about the world to make assumptions so instead of “planning” they naturally spend their time experimenting and iterating.
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Background Music: Tell All (The Forgotten Poets)
#northcarolina #NC #usa #teambuilding #funny #fun #spaghetti #marshmallow #diversityinclusion
5 сен 2024
