After the Professor explained the activity that we have to do, we started following the different steps in the planning process. First we defined our goal and objectives for the innovation. We spent few minutes thinking about how we were going to use 8 straws with little bit of tape to protect an egg without breaking when dropped . Our major concern was to build the contraption with the margin of having at least 50% of the egg's face outside. We came up with ideas, but the best one was to leave a little bit of space between the egg and the straws while we have the tape connecting them. We were monitoring our time between processes to be sure that we don't fall behind. As far as we went in the creation process, we checked the status of our progress and compare to our objectives.
Unfortunately, we didn't determine any alternative strategy because we were 100% optimistic that we were going to succeed at once. We had seen ourselves having only strengths in our building process. In the next step, we started analyzing and making tactical plan. We assigned to everyone a task to save time when we have all the necessaries materials to do the creation.
When we got the materials, each member started doing his work in order to finish the job on time. It was very easy to put words into action because we had already determined how the process is going to be. At the end of the creation, we checked the result and found out that we didn't leave enough space for the egg that was protected by the straws and we were unable to find alternative way because we were running out of time.
We followed all the steps, but almost skipped step number 3 and that could be the reason of our failure. In addition, the team did a great performance in the work process and it was more effective due to the participation of each member. I was really amazing and I think we know now how to make a plan for that kind of activity.
Although none of the group earned 10 point, we learnt a lot from doing that project. Specially, after failing the project, everyone got a chance to look back and try to identify the mistake that cause our mission to fail. If we have to do such project in the future, I believe most of the groups would success.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like your group followed the management process well. You seem to be very organized and you knew what your best option was and how you were going to work as a team to fulfill it. I think that having too many ideas is may be bad thing because it may lead to confusion. Working under time limitations is very difficult. You guys did a good job and I think that if you were given more time you would succeeded, since you fallowed the planning process very well.
ReplyDeleteI also felt this optimism going into the final step, but as construct commenced we had to face problems. We did not think these problems and we were forced to just go with it. In retrospect maybe being more specific with each step would have helped.
ReplyDeleteYes I agree with you, it is always crucial to have a back up plan wen planning something out. In the event of a failure it would be safe to have something to fall back on. Although no group had succeeded, it was a very good learning process!
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