WEEK 4 HOMEWORK

 In week four we did the marshmallow challenge. This challenge involved a string, a piece of tape, some spaghetti sticks and a marshmallow. All we had to do was assemble our instruments into the tallest tower possible that supports the marshmallow in under eighteen minutes in our respective groups. The challenge was a little tricky but overall fun. From it we had a lot of lessons. We learnt not to waste time looking for a leader of the group. With the time limit, making sketches of our prototypes was a waste of time. Rather, just get into it and learn by doing. We learnt not to make assumptions of what we can and can't do. Not looking at other teams for ideas was one assumption. Another assumption was believing we could do it without any more resources, which led us to not ask for more resources even if we could. We also learnt that children are way better at this challenge than most adults. Adults tend to over think things and over complicate things but children just have fun with the challenge and enjoy the task. They are creative and don't restrict themselves to what they've seen done and they are not afraid to push the limits of the rules. The challenge is essentially a way to open up our minds to ideas we never thought possible and try them out.

The main thing that struck me in this lesson was the fact that children are better at this challenge than business school graduates. They are free thinkers and don't bother with power struggles while business school graduates are taught to find the best possible plan and execute it. The thing is though, business school graduates were once children too. They were creative and open minded once but as adults they've been trained into thinking a certain way. So I don't really blame them for failing a challenge that required them to use the way of thinking of a child because it had been long beaten out of them.

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