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Marshmallow challenge
By Global Trust Association
05 November, 2019 | 21:11hrs
This playful dynamic is aimed at promoting innovation, collaborative work, and creativity.
The challenge is to build as a team an autonomous structure using noodles, a rope, and adhesive tape, which can support a marshmallow on top. The winning team is the one that builds the tallest structure that can stand on its own for a limited time.
It is a fun, scientific, and educational exercise that appears to be simple but reveals in-depth lessons about collaborative nature. Also, it encourages team members to get organized and collaborate very fast.
Usually, teams focus on finding a single correct solution, leaving aside the trial-and-error process. Instead of starting by analyzing the marshmallow and designing prototypes based on it so that the structure is strong enough to support it, they spend most of the time creating the structure with the noodles, seeking to make it as high as possible, and when they are finally reaching the time limit, they place the marshmallow on top of the structure and the structure collapses on itself.
Sometimes a small prototype is all it takes to make a difference. Besides, it helps to identify hidden assumptions and provides instant feedback on what works and what doesn’t in each version. This type of collaboration is known as the iterative process.