We
always talk about crisis management. Why is crisis management so important????
Puzzled, right?
We will
talk about it with the help of a MARSHMALLOW CHALLEGE, which is a design challenge. The challenges
are very simple and one of them is presented here. Challenge: The team of four have
to build tallest free standing structure within 8 minutes. The apparatus
provided was 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard tape, one yard string and one
marshmallow. The only condition was the marshmallow has to be on top.
Well it seems very simple but actually it’s pretty
hard because it forces people to collaborate very quickly. This interesting
idea was once incorporated in the design workshop and there was the huge
success. 70 different design workshops were conducted with students, graduates,
designers, architects, etc. The deep lesson came out of this about the nature
of collaboration.
Normally most of the people started by orienting
themselves to the task, they spend some time planning, organizing, sketching
the layouts, etc. They spent majority of the time assembling the sticks to
build in the ever growing structure. And finally at the end someone takes up
the marshmallow and gently put it on top. They stand back and admire their work
but this Ta-Da moment turns to Oh-Oh moment when the structure collapses soon
because of the weight of the marshmallow.
Survey along the world answered the 2 most
interesting questions. 1st is who consistently performs poor and were
caught in the clutches of Oh-Oh moments most of the time? The answer is Recent
School Business Graduates. They produced really lame structures. Shocked???
2nd one is yet to be answered. The 2nd
question is who consistently performs well and enjoyed Ta-Da moments most of
the time? And the answer is Kinder
Garden students. They were not only able to produce most tallest but also more
interesting structures. Analysis id shown in figure below.
So, now the question is how come? Why? What is about
them? The reason for this is business students are trained to find a single
right plan. Then they execute on it and finally when they put marshmallow on
top, it’s a crisis. But the kinder garden students start with the marshmallow
and then they built successive prototypes by always keeping the marshmallow at
the top. So they get iterative feedbacks of what workas and what doesn’t work.
So this is an essence of collaboration. It is an
iterative method consisting of steps prototype, refine, prototype, refine,
continuously.
Why to spent time to conduct this marshmallow
challenge? It helps to identify the hidden assumption i.e it helps the team to
identify the marshmallow in the project. Every project has its own marshmallow.
In nutshell, take up one idea. Make that one idea
your life. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, and every part of your body be full
of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to
success.
Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know there
is something inside you that is GREATER than any obstacle.
Thank you for your time. If you are more interested
you can visit marshmallowchallenge.com