What I learned About Team Building From the Spaghetti/Marshmallow Challenge

We were given 20 strands of uncooked spaghetti, one yard of masking tape, one  yard of #16 cotton string and a fluffy marshmallow. The challenge was to  work as a team to build the tallest structure in 18 minutes to support the marshmallow, using only those materials. It was part of a Chicago Ideas event hosted by Table XI.

Spaghetti/Marshmallow Challenge  was an interesting exercise in team dynamics, as we had to organize, cooperate, plan, test, adapt strategy and rebuild all within a fixed time table. Only about half of the teams successfully created a structure that was sufficiently strong to support the marshmallow because they tried to achieve unsupportable heights. Many saw their structures bend and break as they added the marshmallow at the last minute.

While this was originally set up as a team dynamic exercise, I also came to realized that the materials themselves served as a metaphor on team building.

Here is how the Marshmallow/Spaghetti Challenge played out for us.

All of the participants saw the spaghetti as the fundamental building material for both height and stability.

In all cases the tape assumed a traditional role as an adhesive, connecting spaghetti stands together.

Most of the teams treated the string as an afterthought. One of our team members suggested that it may have been included as a red herring to distract us.

The seemingly light fluffy marshmallow when suspended by flexible spaghetti became our key adversary. Per the rules it had to be supported at the top of the structure. Its weight threatened all the structures. Several teams did not add the marshmallow until the end of the building process only to discover this problem too late as their structures bent or snapped.

 

After the workshop, I reflected on the materials themselves and reexamined their individual roles as team members in the building process.

The spaghetti was indeed the core building material. But the problem was that the higher the structure the more it flexed. Our goal of attempting to achieve maximum height became our biggest challenge.

Through trial and error I realized that a vertical center core of spaghetti to support the marshmallow could take us to maximum height. Also small bits of Spaghetti with tape could be used as anchors for the string.

The spaghetti’s new team role was primarily to work together as one unit to support the marshmallow and with a secondary role as an anchoring component.

This created a new challenge – how to support the center core.

I then realized that the overlooked string could be separated into its individual strands, each of which were quite strong. By unraveling the single braided string I now had 16 yards of supporting and connecting materials. I used it to wrapped the core to make it more ridged and coupled it with the tape to reinforce the joints. The individual strands new key role was to serve as independent guy lines to support the core and keep it from flexing.

In contrast to the spaghetti, the string’s team role was greatly magnified as individual strands rather than as one unit.

The tape which had been used to connect spaghetti strands directly now had two team roles, that being as an anchor for the string strands and as reinforcement for the core’s joints.

As for the marshmallow, its team role was unchanged. It was to reside at the top of the structure to be supported by the team of materials. My new tower soared over 4 feet to 52 inches and could have gone a bit higher.

 

The key lesson was that by re-purposing the individual building components, respecting their strengths and deploying them in new roles to work together the entire structure became stronger and achieve maximum height.

The key question for you is – Are you using both the obvious and not so obvious strengths of your organization to achieve maximum height? If not I can help.

 

There is an interesting Ted Talk on the “marshmallow problem” here. More on Chicago Ideas here and Table XI here.

 

Here are some basic ideas regarding targeting that are worth remembering.

 

From a recent Technori posting by Adrianne Glowski

1) Think about how your products or services fulfill a need or solve a problem for a potential customer.

2) Start with secondary research for existing sources that can help you pull together information about your industry, the market, your competition, and the broad potential customer

3) Create a customer profile, an in-depth description of who your typical customer may be and includes demographic and psychographic information

4) Identify where your target audience hangs out on line and monior what they are talking about and what words they use.

5) Monitor and Evolve. Watch how your customers and competition change over time

 

Full article at http://goo.gl/dZ2pR   From Technori and Adrianne Glowski

Top Line Take Away-  Take Your Time and Do It Right

 

Does this sound familiar? A new publisher, filled with excitement, has an idea for a new magazine. It is a niche that nobody has thought of before. The team is assembled often on a shoestring budget and races to produce the first issue before someone else gets the same idea and beats them to the punch. All focus is on the first issue.

The editorial team races to assemble the first issue. The sales staff is told to get out there and sell ads, often at any price just to make the premier issue look good.

The first issue is finished, a cover is selected, and the new title is sent to the printer and launched. Great job team.

After the first issue hits the public, they receive a few dozen subscription orders from the issue, everyone is excited.

They don’t realize it yet but they will run out of money before the third issue is sent to the press.

So what went wrong?

The First Problem–  in their race to produce a first issue they neglected to find out what their audience really wanted. They failed to explore the proper balance between the different editorial departments in the magazine.  They went with their guts rather than get actionable audience feedback.

The better path- Create a web presence and build an audience before launching the print publication. Carefully monitor traffic and see what editorial articles resonate with your target. Sue the site to collect contact information and establish a dialog with potential subscribers.

By the way, don’t worry about someone else stealing your idea.  A good execution is a much better defense than being first. The magic is in being the best not the first.

 

The Second Problem-  the sales staff racing to get some revenue in the magazine heavily discounted the advertising. Sure they landed some good looking accounts, in fact often these were their best prospects, but in the process priced their product way below what is economically sustainable for the publication.

The better path- understand that the first ad sold to an advertiser sets the price for all following activity from that advertiser. Yes it is important to have the proper advertisers in the first issue. This should be done strategically. Identify the leaders in each targeted category, try to sell them on rate card but if that is not possible give them a free ad in the first issue. This gets your title in front of the client but protects your future revenue.

Management needs to understand that launching a magazine is a long term commitment. If they can’t afford to run in the red for a year or two they should rethink the launch itself.

 

Finally, think of your magazine as an integrated brand and not just a print vehicle. There are many paths for your content, each with its own uniqueness.

The web can help attract an audience and offer content beyond what the print magazine alone can deliver.

The print vehicle has the advantage of permanence and might appeal to a less web-based population.

If you are offering expertise in an area, don’t overlook seminars, white papers, webinars, consulting and other way of spreading your expertise as addition revenue streams. They all contribute to building your credibility in your field. Content has value, don’t be afraid to charge for it.

TOP LINE TAKEWAY- Passion and quality add value to your product/service.

 

A few years ago our family spent a few days at Mackinac Island, Michigan. It is a quaint place that has banned automobiles. All transportation is via foot, bike or horse.

Kite flying is a serious hobby on the Island and the winds are usually favorable.

My teenage daughter thought it might be fun to fly a kite so we wandered into town to pick up a basic kite for a few days of flying. I know little about kites and didn’t wish to make this a major investment. After we visited several of the kite stores it seemed that all were quite expensive particularly in light of our intention to use the kite for only a few days. We finally found an inexpensive kite at a local novelty store.

We purchased the kite and proceeded to set it aloft in front of our hotel. In a very short span of time the wooden cross brace snapped so we returned to town for a replacement brace. We stopped in at a real kite store to purchase the replacement part.

The owner was a very lively fellow and pleasantly asked where we had purchase our kite. He knew our kite was not of good quality but he didn’t make a big deal out of our error. When we mentioned that we had purchased it at the novelty store a sad look appeared on his face. He then told us that the novelty store owner sold a lot a junk kites and he had many people come to him disappointed with their cheap and broken kites.

He then took us on a brief tour of his store stopping to explain some of his various kites- Box kites, French Military kites, Sled kites, etc. and the various benefits and limitations of each. His knowledge was extensive and his passion for kites, real kites, was infectious.

After our tour he told us that he would give us a full credit on our broken kite toward a good kite at his store. It was a deal we could not refuse even though it meant doubling our original kite investment.

We took the real kite back to the hotel and the difference between it and our junk kite was remarkable. Our new kite was made to fly, and quickly took to the sky. In a very short period of time it devoured all the line becoming a small speck in the sky. It was a real flyer.

After we brought the kite back in my daughter and I both remarked on how passionate the kite store owner was regarding his product. And how right he was regarding the difference between our cheap kite and a real kite. Even though we had to double our kite budget we knew that we had made a very good deal and had a great kite.

When I reflect back on the kite guy from Mackinac Island I am reminded of how important knowledge and passion are in sales. We were ignorant regarding kites and therefore assumed there was little difference between one kite and another. Once we were able to recognize quality, the true value of a more expensive kite became both obvious and justified.

A sale often begins by educating customers on how to recognize value. Unless we are successful there we should not be surprised if our customers insist on the lowest cost rather than the best value. Quality often cost more but is usually the better investment.

Never apologize for selling quality or the price it commands. And if you sell quality at junk prices you do both yourself and your customer a disservice as neither of you will appreciate the true value of your product.

This is a favorite quote from Albert Einstein

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

Albert Einstein