Unleashing the potential of people at work

1. Research Question:
'Why do certain
groups add up to be
greater than the sum
of their parts,
while others add up
to less?’
• The designer of the Spaghetti
Exercise was engineer Peter
Skillman who held a competition
to find out the answer to this
question.
• Over several months, he
assembled a series of four person
groups at various locations
including universities all around
the world. The fascinating part of
the experiment had less to do
with the task than with the
participants. The core groups
featured in the research consisted
of:
• Business students
• Lawyers
• CEOS
• Kindergartners
•
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC

2. Research Results
Business Students -
10 inches (25.4
cm)
Lawyers - 15
inches (38.1 cm)
CEOS - 22 inches
(55.88 cm)
Kindergartners - 26
inches (66.04 cm)

3. THE LOWEST PERFORMERS:
THE BUSINESS STUDENTS
Began with strategic thinking and discussion
Examined materials
Tossed ideas back and forth
Asked thoughtful, savvy questions
Generated several options
Honed in on the most promising ideas
Presented as professional, rational and intelligent
Decision to pursue one particular strategy
Divided up tasks and started building

4. HIGHEST PERFORMERS: THE
KINDERGARTNERS
No strategizing
No analysis
No sharing experiences
No questions, proposed options or hones ideas
They barely talked at all
They stood very close to one another
Their interactions were not smooth or organised
They spoke in short bursts (when they did speak): "Here!
No, here!"
Their entire technique might be described as 'trying a bunch
of stuff together’