Practical Teamwork

Originally posted: Sept 4 2007

In the Leading Organisations class at one of our sections, the professor got a huge 10 meter foldable plastic rod to class ... Got 14 students from the section to come to the front to assist him ... Made them stand in a straight line and hold up the index fingers of both their hands parallel to the ground out in front of them ... He then proceeded to place the rod on their stretched out fingers ...

Instructions for them -

1. Make sure that both your fingers are touching the rod at all times
2. Acting together as a team, gently place the rod on the ground

They started ... What do you think would have happened? ... I would have guessed the rod would have fallen off balance maybe? ... But believe it or not, slowly but surely the rod started moving upwards! ... The class started laughing ... They thought that the bunch of guys had misinterpreted the instructions ... They did it again ... And again the rod started moving upwards ... FIVE times in a row the rod moved upwards and not an inch downwards! ...

Now why was this counter-intuitive event taking place? ... Each student, in his efforts to get both his fingers touching the rod, would tend to push upwards ... This would cause atleast one other guy to lose his touch on the rod as it would have moved upwards ... Now this guy would need to get his finger up to maintain contact ... And the cycle repeats with every guy! ... The rod always moves upwards! ...

Moral of the story ... In an effort to fulfill your own individual goals, the team's goals have a very good chance of getting left behind ... Insightful ...