Embracing the Kindergarten Spirit
In a wacky yet enlightening experiment involving spaghetti, tape, string, and marshmallows, kindergarteners showed us how to outperform even the mightiest CEOs, lawyers, and MBA students. Their secret? A willingness to embrace failure and a profound belief in the power of trial and error. It turns out, thinking like a kindergartener is a recipe for success.
As a business accelerator, we couldn't help but draw insights from this peculiar study. Grab your marshmallow and let's explore how the kindergarteners’ uninhibited approach can inspire us to unleash innovation, leave status management behind, and build towering success!
The Tower Challenge
Picture this: 20 pieces of spaghetti, a yard of string, tape, and a marshmallow longing to be placed atop the tallest tower. The results were astounding: kindergarteners reached towering heights of 26 inches, while CEOs settled at 22 inches, lawyers at 15 inches, and MBA students at a mere 10 inches.
But how did the innocent little ones outshine their adult counterparts?
Status Management Unmasked
While the MBA students and other adult groups got busy strategizing, discussing, and dividing tasks, they inadvertently fell victim to an underhanded saboteur: status management. Evolutionary psychologists argue that our brains are wired to constantly scan and negotiate our place within hierarchies and roles. So, until we find our status within a group, we can't operate with our full creative capacities. The result? A tower that pales in comparison to the kindergarteners' soaring success.
Playful Pioneers
But fear not, for the kindergarteners had no time for status management or lengthy discussions. They dove headfirst into experimentation. With giggles and glee, they energetically grabbed materials and began building, creating multiple iterations without hesitation. Their communication style was refreshingly direct, punctuated with bursts of "Here! No. Here!" They didn't waste energy on strategizing but focused on the pure joy of exploration.
What Can We Learn?
The Marshmallow Challenge teaches us to question our assumptions, embrace the power of prototyping, and enjoy the process of creative collaboration. This engaging and lighthearted exercise serves as a humorous reminder of the hidden assumptions we often carry into projects. Just like the teams assumed the marshmallow's weight was negligible, our projects also carry hidden assumptions that can bring them crashing down at the last moment. Prototyping becomes the key to success, allowing us to build, test, and refine our ideas before it's too late.
Successful startups must create MVPs and test their viability early on. By continuously improving our prototypes, we gain valuable insights and avoid the pitfall of assuming we have the perfect solution from the start. Remember, the more we explore, experiment, and embrace the joy of discovery, the more we're bound to uncover exciting opportunities. So, grab your marshmallow and build your tower of success, one wild and wonderful experiment at a time.
The Marshmallow Challenge was invented by Peter Skillman and popularized by Tom Wujec. For more information, check out this TED Talk.