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Do you agree with Tom Wujec's analysis of why kindergarteners perform better on the Spaghetti Challenge than MBA students?

Interesting enough, I actually do agree with analysis. I find his comment about the kids not wanting to be the CEO to be very explanatory as to why there is little success among other participants. I have heard similar examples in the past that were more directed at how investors should actually allocate their money. I want to say that the school age kids out preformed trained investors most of the time.

 Can you think of any other reasons why kids might perform better?

I feel like the kids don't have any outside pressure to preform well on them. When he mentioned that in created a reward of $10,000 for participants, the success rate was zero. I feel as though if that were the children, they would still preform well because they just want to be successful in their work. The children don't have anyone to impress or answer to when the task is complete; whether they were successful or not. 

In your view, why do CEOs with an executive assistant perform better than a group of CEOs alone?

I think it goes back to what he said, there is someone there giving them direction. If there is a group of people who are use to being the number one in charge, I'd assume it would take awhile before you could determine who was going to lead and so on. With the assistant there, they can take control and lead the group of leaders and get them on track as soon as possible. There would be no trying to be number one.

If you were asked to facilitate a process intervention, how could you relate the video to the process intervention skills?

I think the video points out some flaws in people in a rather quick manner. You can get immediate results as to how people react to this challenge and I think you can apply that directly back to the workplace. One of the process intervention processes I like is clarifying and summarizing. Sometimes people leave a meeting and they have no idea what someone is talking about or what point they were actually trying to make. This video actually allows you to see what points are trying to be made and you can identify some things that apply to you and your business. Clarity in a matter can lead to better success then just having uncertain direction.

What can you take away from this for your immediate career?

What this video has taught me is that sometimes team building exercises can actually help you learn a lot about someone. In our job, you don't ever really have an opportunity to have a "do-over" and you always wonder what could have happened if you handled something differently. I think if we all took some time to make sure there is clarity on our part and took time to make sure we all understood what we should, that there would be better reaction times and outcomes more often.