Successful Collaboration is Iterative

I was in a leadership design seminar last year, and we were asked to group ourselves into a team of 4. We were given 18 minutes to build the tallest free standing structure - with 20 sticks of spaghetti, a yard of tape, a yard of string, and 1 marshmallow - with the goal of having the Marshmallow on top.

Though it sounds simple, it's pretty hard to do because you are forced to collaborate quickly. We saw versions of the Eiffel Tower, and Triangle Base design to hold the structure. The exercise revealed the very nature of collaboration. Some brought up their engineering and design skills, others brought realistic questions of “How many spaghetti do we need to hold that marshmallow up?” People begin orienting themselves to the task by asking "What if?" Keep in mind these are leaders in their field - so everyone is jockeying for power to get their message across. Some even started out by planning and sketching how to build it in 18 minutes. Some broke into two groups - one group designing the base and the other designing the top to hold the marshmallow - and bringing both together to build one structure.

Some decided to put the marshmallow last given only a few seconds left. Gingerly standing back and hoping that the spaghetti hold the marshmellow up - yelling "DONE." Until a few seconds later, I saw so many bent structures, and even broke some of the spaghetti. And you hear groups now yelling "OMG". The marshmallow caused the structure to buckle and collapsed.

There were more groups that had OMG moments. So who performed well? The tallest structure came from combination that had the most interesting designs. The Eiffel design held it firmly strong but not tall enough. So when everyone started observing the tallest design - we started asking "How come that stood up?" The winning design came from lower level management who did not spend time arguing who should be leading, who should be designing, and none spent time jockeying to get their message across.

The winning group did not have ONE single plan that someone architected. The winner were re-adjusting their build minute by minute making adjustment as they move along. They were building prototypes - let's try it this way and see if this works - but they always are keeping the marshmallow on top. They did multiple builds and their goal always is to keep the marshmallow on top. The essence of this build is called Iterative. Everyone receives instant feedback of what works and what doesn't.

The average result from teams are 20" high. The Eiffel design stood an average of 18". The winner I mentioned got their structure up 32" tall. They reinforce the base like Eiffel but spread the weight upward instead of focusing too much weight on the base. One of the factors the winner had as well beside collaobration ia facilitation. Everyone agreed on the process.

So why do this exercise. This exercise prove that process and iteration work. This exercise helps us discover the hidden assumptions, because all projects have their marshmallow. The challenge provided shared experience, common language, and common process to build the structure with proper facilitation. This exercise demands that everyone in the team bring their senses together, agree on the process and apply the best of our thinking to complete the challenge at hand. Sometimes, all it takes is a prototype to turn an OMG moment to DONE.