What small wooden cubes can teach us...??

TOWER BUILDING EXERCISE

In the second session of POM, our beloved Dr. Mandi taught us yet another important management lesson through an exercise. The outcome of the exercise was amazing and learning it was fun too.

SCENARIO

Students were asked to build a tower using same size wooden cubes. There were certain rules pertaining to the exercise

1. The base of the tower will be a single cube.

2. The tower will not take support of any other structure.

3. All cubes were of same shape and size.

4. Each tower block will be placed using one hand only.

5. The task ends when his/her tower falls apart.

THE TASK

The task was in two parts. In PART I of the task, a student was asked to build the tower placing it on the floor. Before starting, students were asked to estimate the number of blocks that will be placed. Students started with a modest estimate of 10-12 blocks and later the student who will be volunteering to build the block settled for 14 blocks. My personal estimate was 16. The student started building the tower cautiously and actually ended up putting 22 blocks tower exceeding his own expectations. 

Craftsmen Management

In PART 2 of the task, came the real twister. In the later half of the task, another student will be building the tower but he will be BLINDFOLDED. To sail through this difficult situation, another student will help him by guiding him but he can only speak to him and cannot touch neither him nor the tower. A third student was also given the task of observing the whole activity and only interfere when extremely required. When students were asked to estimate, the numbers felled slightly to 18-20.

Modern Day Management

There is a difference in both the parts of the task. The "with eyes" part of the task was a reflection of the older days management system where the hands and the eyes for the task were of the same person. It was a craftsmen process which it implied to. Whereas the blindfolded part of the task reflected today's modern day management system where the hands and the eyes for the task are of different persons. Dr. Prasad told us that there was a reason why management shifted to today's modern day system from craftsmen system. This is explained below with the use of a table

Parameter	Open Eyed (Old school of management)	Blind Folded (Modern school of management)
Productivity	Less	More
Satisfaction of work	More	Less
Division of work	Not clear	Crystal clear
Skill Set	Skilled	Deskilled
Work quantity	enlarged	Broken in segments

All these steps made sense when against the whole group's expectations, the blindfolded person along with the help from his navigator, crossed his own estimate and went up to finally build the tower of 25 blocks, 3 more than the open eyed one.

LEARNING

1. Today's modern day management system is more effective and efficient than old day's craftsmen system. Although the satisfaction of work is more in craftsmen system but for the success of the task, blindfolded system (clear divide of works and roles, work broken in segments, more specialization) is more apt.

2. The three students in blindfolded task played 3 important roles:-

The blindfolded person - Worker

The navigator - Manager

The observer - CEO

Just like in the task, the worker's role in modern day management system is crystal clear, specific and requires a definitive skill set. His role is not to take any decision but to follow the instructions of the manager. Similarly, the manager's role is not to do the physical work himself but to guide the worker to do work more effectively and supervise the whole process himself. This co-ordination results in more effective work being executed. The CEO, however, is not the part of the process. He has to interfere only when things are going out of control or when there are critical changes or modification required. He has to be innovative, devise new expansion plans, provide productive environment for the task, reward for target accomplishment etc. 

3. It is always beneficial to work in teams rather than individually to accomplish any task. The co-operation results in more scientific approach, more profitability, more productive and it turns one's weakness into strength through sharing and interaction.  

4. Goal Setting - More than 90% of the students lowered their estimates since they thought that the blindfolded person will not be able to build a tower higher than the open eyed person.But eventually the blindfolded person made the tower of height greater than the open eyed person. This tells us that our targets should not change after realization of one's potential.The more we gain our knowledge, our targets should move in an upward direction.

Being a management student, I learned the importance of goal setting for the completion of the task, benefit of employee and to achieve holistic success.

CEO>Manager>Worker

Happy Learning!!!