A Surprising Lesson on the Nature of Teamwork
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ~Margaret Meade
Tom Wujec studies how we share and absorb information. He’s an innovative practitioner of business visualization — using design and technology to help groups solve problems and understand ideas.
In the following short video Tom presents some surprisingly deep research into the “marshmallow problem” — a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape and a marshmallow. Who can build the tallest tower with these ingredients? And why does a surprising group always beat the average?
TIP: If you find this study interesting, try doing a Google Image search using the term “Marshmallow Challenge” and what comes up are scores of images from various groups taking this challenge … and some of the photos are really pretty funny.
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Sometimes, it’s not the number of persons in a group that count, it’s the number of persons in a group who are truly working hard to achieve the ultimate goal of the whole organization.
Candice Michelle recently posted..Business Surveillance Systems
Ah, you are so very wise! Thanks for sharing Candice
Wow I don’t know what to say. I’m happy you like it. By the way, I just want to thank you for teaching me something new with your post. It helped me augment my knowledge about the given topic.
Candice Michelle recently posted..gun holsters
Almost all work is easily done if there are more members of the group doing it rather than only one person doing it. Team work is the key for more successful project.
Welcome Brenda, and thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. Hope to see you here again soon!
Hi Marty you share here a great post its really helpful. and I’ve got something Idea about this.
Hi Marty,
What a fun way to collaborate… with a “kit” using marshmallows and spaghetti. In fact, I think it’s the perfect use for both products rather than ingesting them! I looked over the photos online and it looked like people took this challenge very, very seriously. It’s amazing what teams can creatively produce when given interesting, unique tools and a time limit! A fun challenge and I look forward to giving it a try as well.
Loren recently posted..Time Management Skills for Increasing Business Productivity
Twitter: andynathan
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Marquita,
You find the coolest pieces of information! That is amazing how one challenge explains teamwork in such detail!
Andy
Andy Nathan recently posted..Google+ Social Search: Part 1
Twitter: stevetheowl12
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Great post, Marty! You’re just finding a lot of lessons in marshmallows, aren’t you?
It’s a relief to find out that architects and engineers are good at this. It really is amazing how looking for the wrong thing can make it oh too easy to miss the thing that we needed all along.
Steve Nicholas recently posted..Authentic Tithing
Ha! Isn’t it funny … I hung on to the post idea for several days because I thought readers might begin to think I had a “thing” for marshmallows … but I didn’t name the study, I just found out about it and I do think it contains valuable information … and fortunately I still have half a bag of marshmallows from the first article