A635.4.3.RB - Build a Tower, Build a Team

A635.4.3.RB - Build a Tower, Build a Team

"Marshmallow problem" a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape and a marshmallow. It amazes me that kindergarten students are regularly able to build higher structures, in comparison to groups of business school graduates. Why is this the case you might ask?

It may be a result of the tendency of children to look at the challenge in a very different perspective and harnessing their creativity. In the marshmallow challenge, children would at once stick the marshmallow on top of their simple structure, test the prototype, and continue to improve upon it. (Wujec, 2010) Business Students and Executive Directors tend to spend time competing for power, planning, pride, ego, and finally, producing a structure to which the marshmallow is added at the end of this process.

This video should be shown not only to business school students, but to management staffs and teams. It is common to hear people on teams say, “to many Chiefs and not enough Indians”. In my workplace this is definitely true. There are a couple of factors that create this environment in my workplace. The most common is everyone want to be in charge, but on one wants the responsibility. Second, the corporate and competitive life creates a “take charge” attitude. If you want to get ahead you must be assertive and aggressive. And this is at the mercy of cooperation and team building. Of course kindergartners perform better on the Spaghetti Challenge than MBA students, the kindergartners have been tainted with the corruption of the world.

Despite its reputation for being, well, lame, team building can be the most important investment you can make for your people. It builds trust, mitigates conflict, encourages communication, and increases collaboration. Effective team building means more engaged employees, which is good for company culture and boosting the bottom line.

The most successful, memorable team-building events are ones that don’t feel like a day at the office. Activities that overtly aim to draw in leadership lessons or practical takeaways are less powerful. Spending time together, sharing an experience or working towards a common goal allows bonding to happen more organically and far more effectively.

Most team-building falls flat because it’s a one-time activity - done and then forgotten. It’s key to find ways to keep the excitement going. The challenge is creating opportunities for people to connect and interact in meaningful ways, outside of regular meetings or presentations.

One way we do this is at our daily huddle. At the same time each day, the entire company assembles for a fast-paced stand-up meeting to check-in on major projects and celebrate achievements together. Beyond that, our people are encouraged to share their 101 life goals list with each other (we even developed an app to make it easier). Goals range from learning to read Tolstoy in Russian to walking the Great Wall of China. It’s a powerful way to learn about people and their dreams, as well as to generate ideas for future team-building activities.

References

Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to organization Development. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

Wujec, T. (2010, February). Build a Tower, Build a Team. Retrieved from TED: http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower