Reflection on Marshmallow Challenge Game

The activity we did in class is one of the famous games to form teamwork, which is the marshmallow challenge. The rule of this activity is to use restricted materials to build the tallest freestanding structure in 18 minutes, and marshmallow has to be on stand of top of the structure in order to win. As time ticking, we started of discussing about the way to build it. Everyone in our group has shared our own opinions about the strategies to make the structure to stand stable and meanwhile to make it higher.

One of the group mate have proposed we should use four spaghettis to form a solid square base then use another four spaghettis to hood upright to create more length of the structure. Then I thought if we want to double up the height of the structure, then we probably need to form another square in the middle in order to balance the power of each side. The role I played in this activity is to brainstorm ideas and helps to implement the suggestions we came up with.

In the activity, I’m proud of that we can all cooperate very well and we all aim for one goal and try our best to accomplish it. All the group members are willing to listen others opinions and clear about the work that assigned. An open communication allow us to understand each other, moreover, all the members would be more proactive to identify the problem and solve it. During the activity, we had made some mistakes by accidently broke the spaghetti. At this time, we didn’t get panic, instead, two of us are trying to fix it and the other two are continue with building the top.

However, if I have a chance to redo the activity again, I will be more focus on stabilized the structure other than concentrate on the height. Because of the urge to win the activity, I will be tempted to build the structure as high as I could. Especially when the time almost ran out, the marshmallow still not on the top of the structure, and I still working on balancing the structure.

This activity is related to the teamwork section that we covered in class, the list of the characteristics of an effective teamwork are being apply in this performance. Also, the activity help to distinguish the difference between a group and a team; we built the structure and cooperated as a team because are committed to one common goal.

Teamwork is always been one major challenge for many companies, and yet, Google seems to find the answer to the problem. Google’s collected data has indicated that caring team member’s thought and respect it with open mind and equal communication process could actually form an effective team. Interaction is crucial to create a productive team; everyone in the team has to make the effort to find the connection with each other.