Marshmellow Challenge.

Instruction

Step 1: Watch the Ted Talk on the Marshmellow Challenge. (Link :https://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower)

Step 2: Answer the following question

Step 3: Comment on three of your classmate posts

Question here:

1. What were your surprised by? How can you tie this into the real world in an organizational or business setting? Please elaborate.

2. What lessons on strategy can you draw from this? What lessons on human dynamics (interpersonal interaction) can you draw from this? How does this impact a business/organizational strategy?

350 words for your answer and 80 words in each for comment on other posts , single spaced, using 12 pt type, Times New Roman font and 1” margins for all work.

Due 10-16-2019 at 10 AM

My classmates post here, comment them one by one:

First one

It was interesting to see the success rate that kindergarten students had in comparison to business graduate students. I laughed and then I realized I wasn’t too surprised. Most kids are imaginative and much more creative than some of us adults, and this allows them to try over and over again. These ‘successive prototypes’ allows the kids to figure out different ways that won’t work until one of those ways actually does. That is amazing. Meanwhile the other teams composed of college graduates or professionals go through what reminds me of team development stages like storming, norming and performing. As these teams finally have worked it out with a plan they then begin to build, however some do not succeed as well as the kindergarten children do. This trial and error process is something that businesses could learn from. While having a plan is useful, spending too much time about getting it right can turn out the exact opposite. So why not try to collaborate with different ideas and be open minded with how everyone on the team thinks and in the process work out the best plan like the kindergarten children do. In this marshmallow experiment, the kids were utilizing strategy techniques without even realizing it. This relates to strategy in a business setting. Strategy does not have to involve complex plans or processes. Having a clear plan helps and aligning that with team collaboration is useful for the desired result. Having a good understanding with team members makes work effective.

Second one

At first, I was shocked to see kindergarten students have better success than business students. Then, I laughed since I’m a business student, but at the same time I believed it to be true. We can tie some of these ideas to real life business settings such as allowing more creativity in the workspace. Kids are more creative than adults because its in their nature to be so. I think its a key factor on why they have better success than other college students. I think adults think to much and try to make everything as perfect as can be just like in business sometimes a company would like a good idea to be perfect and by adding unnecessary things to that idea ruins the whole idea in the end. If the adults would just think of one idea and improve as they go then the results may show more success. Some of the ideas that I have drawn from this video was that you don’t need the best idea from the start. You can just have a basic idea and improve from there. Like the kids, they didn’t start with an idea, but started and kept going until they had no more to give and the results were a success for them. I think these kind of ideas can help businesses see that sometimes you don’t need these hard thought ideas, but instead some simple step by step idea that can have great results. These kinds of workshops can really help a team come together and maybe help the team gain more creativity than they had from the start.

Third one:

Like most people, I was surprised by the children doing better than adults in the marshmellow challenge. Naturally, we like to believe adults are smarter than children, but not always in every situation. Now that I think about it, it really does make sense that children would do better. Adults are competitive and are so focused on winning and it being as tall as possible, that they forget about building a solid foundation. Children, on the other hand, are creative and are not so focused on winning that it allows them do well. Children do not get upset if it falls, they just ove on and try some thing new because it is like a game to them. I think this challenge can tie into a real business setting because I believe it shows that planning and trial & error are part of the process. In business, I feel that people want to win and win fast. However, there is a process and mistakes will happen. Sometimes you have to try again and again and again. In businesses, a product may not turn out as intended, but that only means you take it back and fix it, and try again. The strategy that is shown here is that you need to keep trying, even if it does not work out the first time. Trial & error is key. I think this challenge also teaches us the importance of working together. As humans, we want to take the lead and go with only our own ideas. However, if one idea does not work, then maybe you need to let someone else try. If done right, a business can thrive off of this strategy. It will allow a company to continue on even if some things are not working in their favor. This also creates a better culture because it teaches employees how to work effectively as a team.