Marshmallow Challenge
The challenge began like Peary's arctic expedition; the group came to an understanding of our goals, designed the tower, allocated resources, and prepared to build. The first leg would end like Shackleton's expedition, a complete disaster that came as a result of unwillingness to adapt. Our design was based in triangles, we intended to build a pyramid supported by triangular prisms. Our inability to connect joints of the structure lead to a poorly planned last section rush in which we abandoned our secondary plan (a secondary pyramid supporting the primary pyramid) and stood the primary structure upright with just seconds to spare. Needless to say, we lost.
Our second attempt was significantly better. After internalizing the advice of the Ted talk, we focused on iterative design. After initial failures, we decided to maximize height by extending what was essentially a pole 4 sticks thick and 24 inches high. We stabilized it at 3 points: within the pyramid, at the table, and with two taught strings keeping the peak upright. It was because of this that we succeeded in building the tallest tower in the second round.
The advantages of an informed build were clear. We saved a significant amount of time for the build because we didn't spend time arguing over the perfect design. Instead, we built several models, getting progressively higher each time. This is clear in the photos, as we started with a more typical design and ended with a looming monstrosity of engineering. This could not have been accomplished without the benefits of increased team chemistry. Had we spent time arguing over the "perfect build" we wouldn't have been able to build nearly as many prototypes and would likely have stuck to a rigid build plan. Obviously, that plan would have been unsuccessful. Instead, we were able to efficiently allocate time, the most crucial component of our victory.