"The kindergartners succeed not because they are smarter but because they work together in a smarter way."

On Individual Skills & Interactions

#memoriesfromdiaries

9th August 2001 ❤️

This particular day’s diary entry is memorable because it has some rich takeaways – especially on the importance of Group Discussion!

Yes! On this particular day, we had a lovely session of DOE!

DOE by the way, is a cute acronym for Debate, Oratory and Elocution Club.

The Group Discussion was on the topic, ‘Child Labour’.

Prof. Daniel David was the moderator, and he did an awesome job in his role as an effective Moderator.

DOE by the way, was a purely voluntary gathering, and we usually had around 25 to 50 students, taking part in DOE. I was kinda Convenor for DOE back then! 😊

These Group Discussions, in my firm opinion, have helped hone the social skills of many a student!

Indeed, it’s a lovely forum where students not only share their own knowledge, but also get the opportunity to enhance their own learning, by listening to others sharing their knowledge.

As such, it also helps build interpersonal skills.

In this regard, me thought of sharing from a lovely book that gives some enriching insights into group thinking!

The book is by Daniel Coyle, and it’s titled, The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups.

Here goes –

Why do certain groups add up to be greater than the sum of their parts, while others add up to be less?

A few years ago, the designer and engineer Peter Skillman held a competition to find out.

Over several months, he assembled a series of four-person groups at Stanford, the University of California, the University of Tokyo, and a few other places.

He challenged each group to build the tallest possible structure using the following items:

• twenty pieces of uncooked spaghetti

• one yard of transparent tape

• one yard of string

• one standard-size marshmallow

The contest had one rule: The marshmallow had to end up on top.

The fascinating part of the experiment, however, had less to do with the task than with the participants.

Some of the teams consisted of business school students.

The others consisted of kindergartners.

The business students got right to work. They began talking and thinking strategically. They examined the materials. They tossed ideas back and forth and asked thoughtful, savvy questions.

They generated several options, then honed the most promising ideas. It was professional, rational, and intelligent. The process resulted in a decision to pursue one particular strategy.

Then they divided up the tasks and started building. The kindergartners took a different approach.

They did not strategize.

They did not analyze or share experiences.

They did not ask questions, propose options, or hone ideas.

In fact, they barely talked at all. They abruptly grabbed materials from one another and started building, following no plan or strategy.

When they spoke, they spoke in short bursts: “Here! No, here!” Their entire technique might be described as trying a bunch of stuff together.

To their surprise, they found that, kindergartners built structures that averaged twenty-six inches tall, while business school students built structures that averaged less than ten inches.

The result is hard to absorb because it feels like an illusion.

We see smart, experienced business school students, and we find it difficult to imagine that they would combine to produce a poor performance.

We see unsophisticated, inexperienced kindergartners, and we find it difficult to imagine that they would combine to produce a successful performance.

But this illusion, like every illusion, happens because our instincts have led us to focus on the wrong details.

We focus on what we can see - individual skills.

But individual skills are not what matters.

What matters is the interaction.

The business school students appear to be collaborating, but in fact they are engaged in a process psychologists call status management.

They are figuring out where they fit into the larger picture: Who is in charge? Is it okay to criticize someone’s idea?

The kindergartners succeed not because they are smarter but because they work together in a smarter way.

They are tapping into a simple and powerful method in which a group of ordinary people can create a performance far beyond the sum of their parts.

To sum up, as is the case with an effective Group Discussion –

Individual skills are not what matters.

What matters is the interaction!

How true…!

PS: You may want to read on one such DOE Club activity, in our past post HERE!