I’m
not sure if it is being a mom is the reason that I am not surprised by the fact
that kindergarteners performed the best on this challenge, or if it is the fact
I have worked in a group of adults before.
Kids, in general, are more creative and work better in teams. Kids also are not as focused on who is the
leader or who is in charge as adults might be.
The final reason why I believe kids succeed better at hands-on thinking
projects is they are not afraid to build, fail, and reconsider. This is a key component of building a
successful structure.
Wujec
(2010) also believed that kids were more successful because of their ability to
understand the concept of a prototype, in other words, they tried multiple
options until they found one that worked for them. On the other hand, the adults were more
concerned about what roles they would be taking on and who would be in charge
than they were the actual structure. My
question is at what point in one’s educational career do these things matter more
than the actual task at hand. Why is the
question of who is in change and what is each person responsible for outweigh
the outcome and is this taught to us or is it just something we realize as we
get older?
In
our reading, Brown (2011) stated that the “purpose of interventions is to help
the group become more aware of the way it operates and the way its members work
together” (p. 199). While I understand
the need for such intervention I wonder what it is that gets groups to the
point where they need it. As adults, it
would seem that a group would be able to work out any issues it may encounter,
from experience I know it is not always the case. Children have a sense of innocence that
allows them to forgive quickly and move on, adults, on the other hand, seem to
fight for every bit of power and control they can get.
I
fully believe the reason the CEOs were more successful when paired with an
executive assistance is because the assistant was the one assigning roles and
micromanaging the entire project. In my
experience, the best CEOs are the ones with great assistants, as they the
assistance are able to work through the scheduling and fine details while the
CEO can focus on the bigger picture. I
might even go as far as to say the most successful people, in general, have
someone behind the scenes who is coordinating the show.
If
I had the opportunity to facilitate a meeting where I introduced this problem
to adult, I would give them the opportunity to solve it on their own first then
show them a video of the kindergarteners attempting the same problem and see if
the adults could spot the differences. It
would be interesting to see if the adult group is able to see the lack of power
struggle in the children as well as the ability to build something, test it
out, and make changes or improvements before time is up. This alone is a good lesson in group
dynamics.
I have spent a lot of time watching kids and
realizing that they see the world differently than adults do, some of this is
due to their innocence or nativity some is due to their immature processing
skills, either way adults could learn a lot from watching kids interact in a
group setting. Brown (2011) talked about
group task functions and group building functions and how most adults tend to fulfill
roles they are comfortable with. I
believe the same is true for children only they don’t spend a great deal of
time talking about it; they simply fall into the roles and move on with the
project. Analysis is a great tool but it
is often used too much, there is always the chance of overanalyzing and I
believe this is what most groups does and it can get them into trouble. When a person takes on a role in the group,
instead of just accepting that person’s role the group instead tries to figure
out why that person took that role, which only takes time, energy, and resources
away from the actual problem at hand.
Adults can learn a lot from kids if they would just open their eyes and
listen.
Brown, D. (2011). An experiential approach
to organizational development (8th
ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Wujec, T. (2010). Build a tower, build a team. Retrieved
September 04, 2016, from
http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower
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