We did a pretty interesting game today in our leadership class. Our instructor separated us into 4 random teams, where each team consist of four people. The objective was simple, create a hang-free tower as tall as possible with a bunch of newspaper, tapes, and rubber band within less than 30 min. Here’s what our team created.
With the little time given and poor construction, I’m surprised this tower can still stand.
As we created this tower, there are couple things we observed.
- Our team was a flat team, meaning there’s no dominant leaders. All of us are leader in our own tasks. It’s kinda weird that we started with no idea on how to make a tower. However, as we progress along, each of us contribute ideas, and ended up doing our each own task to build this tower. Me and Andy were the tower builder. Jerry and Heather were the material maker. We didn’t decide this, we just did it. I guess we acted as our own leader and determined what was the thing I can do the best at that time.
- Foundation is really important. The keys here are planning and preparation. Without proper planning, we can’t make a tower from newspapers and hoping it will stand still. There will be unexpected things happen as you progress, but the main goal was clear from the beginning, to build a tower using triangular foundation and using pillars to raise the building.
- You have to know your limit. We can’t keep increasing the height of this tower. There will be certain level where if you add more height, the building will collapse. Don’t let your proud blind you from seeing the reality. We were not the highest tower in the class, but we knew the limit of our building. In fact, one of the team has their tower collapse during presentation. It’s because poor planning and too much weight on the tower.
- Communication is important. This reminds me of tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-8). Without proper communication, there will be no unity to achieve one specific goal, which in this case to build a tower.
Overall, this game was pretty fun. I wish there will be more of this practical game again in our leadership class.