The importance of planning cannot be overlooked. I was reminded of this during our (awesome) class activity the other day. Here's how it went down: immediately after class began, the professor broke us up into groups of 5. We were given 25 minutes to plan to build some sort of contraption that would protect a raw egg when dropped at a height of 10 feet. The materials for this contraption included nothing more than 8 flexible straws and 2 feet of masking tape. The catch: over 50% of the egg shell had to remain visible. Also, we were not given the materials until after the planning process. After the planning process, we were given 10 minutes to execute our plan. 10 minutes to build our contraption and get to the front of the room ready with the contraption in hand, along with a piece of paper with some details (a sketch of the contraption, the group members names, etc).
The reward for completing this task successfully (meaning the egg stays intact after it is dropped from a height of 10 feet): 10 extra credit points added to our next test grade. Needless to say, we were all trying hard to succeed at this task. Not a single group in our class was successful, which begs the question: what went wrong? Our professor assured as that usually there is one group that succeeds. There was most likely a problem in our planning.
The 5 basic steps in the planning process are as follows:
As I examine these 5 steps and relate these to what we did in our group, I can see right off the bat where we strayed from the right path. The first thing we did was to define our objectives and to identify our resources and whatnot. Basically, that's steps 1 and 2. We failed, however, to analyze our group strengths and weaknesses that could work for or against us. OK, that's not such a big deal, so lets move on to step 3.
We came up with one alternative to our original plan, but we hardly compared it with our original and we failed to assess the strengths and weaknesses of it. In other words, we liked with our original plan and stuck with it; we were not too open to alternatives.
Our next mistake pertains to step 4. We did not allocate specific jobs and roles to the group members according to our skills and talents. We did not discuss at all how and who would be building this contraption, who would draw the sketch, etc. This was probably our most fatal mistake; when it came time to execute our plan, we panicked a bit and we all scrambled to get the different tasks accomplished.
Finally, we implemented our plan and evaluated the results. As we were building the contraption, we had to fix a few (fundamental) design flaws, so we revised our plan accordingly. In the end, we ended up with a cradle type contraption that provided egg-cellent (I know, cheesy, right?) cushioning to our egg. We were confident that we would win those 10 extra credit points... until we saw our egg fall to its messy demise.
The 5 basic steps in the planning process are as follows:
- Define your goals and objectives. (know where you want to go; understand deadlines. Be specific enough so you will know you have arrived when you get there and/or how far off you are along the way)
- Determine current status compared to objectives. (Know where you stand in reaching the objectives from the start; identify resources, group strengths that work in your favor and group weaknesses that can hold you back.)
- Develop premises and several alternative strategies. (generate alternative scenarios for what may happen; identify for each scenario things that may help or hinder progress toward your objectives. Evaluate alternatives to assess strengths and weaknesses of each.)
- Analyze alternatives and make a tactical plan. (Choose the action alternative most likely to accomplish your objectives; describe what specifically must be done to implement this course of action; allocate jobs/roles throughout the team.)
- Implement the plan and evaluate the results. (take the planned action; measure progress toward objectives as implementation proceeds; take corrective actions and revise plan as needed.)
As I examine these 5 steps and relate these to what we did in our group, I can see right off the bat where we strayed from the right path. The first thing we did was to define our objectives and to identify our resources and whatnot. Basically, that's steps 1 and 2. We failed, however, to analyze our group strengths and weaknesses that could work for or against us. OK, that's not such a big deal, so lets move on to step 3.
We came up with one alternative to our original plan, but we hardly compared it with our original and we failed to assess the strengths and weaknesses of it. In other words, we liked with our original plan and stuck with it; we were not too open to alternatives.
Our next mistake pertains to step 4. We did not allocate specific jobs and roles to the group members according to our skills and talents. We did not discuss at all how and who would be building this contraption, who would draw the sketch, etc. This was probably our most fatal mistake; when it came time to execute our plan, we panicked a bit and we all scrambled to get the different tasks accomplished.
Finally, we implemented our plan and evaluated the results. As we were building the contraption, we had to fix a few (fundamental) design flaws, so we revised our plan accordingly. In the end, we ended up with a cradle type contraption that provided egg-cellent (I know, cheesy, right?) cushioning to our egg. We were confident that we would win those 10 extra credit points... until we saw our egg fall to its messy demise.
Hey,I think our team did the same mistake regarding step 4 of action planning...
ReplyDeleteIn what you described here I understand that our groups had almost the same problems since as a group you also didn't generate enough ideas in step two in order to build the optimal model in step 3...
It seems like the majority of people had the same problems: absence of a leader, separation and assessment of tasks etc...That's exactly what we faced in my group. The most difficult thing to do, I think, was to develop and alternative idea...Once my group decided on the design, we never came back to a plan B...Had we done that, the outcome would have been different... And yes, I see what you are saying regarding confidence to get 10 points for the task, I also had the same feeling until the very last moment of the trial...
ReplyDeleteHey,I was impressed by your group, whom revised the plan accordingly. Our group failed to do that, as a result, we build a egg protechtor devise that we had never planed.
ReplyDeletehey couldnt find you on facebook. I dont want to post Julian's address here, to invite you to that party hes having... send me an email or add me there so i can send you the info. sanjanachowdhury@gmail.com or sanjana.chowdhury@baruchmail.cuny.edu
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