Lego Adventure Challenge

What

One important aspect of creativity and innovation is "constraints." With only a few moving parts to manipulate, you are forced to focus on what you can do with what you have. This is related to the concept of resourcefulness (strong) and the concept of bricolage (weak).

In this activity I give every student her|his own bag of five Legos. Every bag contains the same number and type (but not color) of Legos. Sort of like this -->

See for yourself how creativity under constraints with five Lego blocks leads to a near-infinite domain of Lego Adventure Models. Note how the shapes converge somewhat, but that the names vary with the differences in Lego colors. Are some models more "creative" than others?

If you're interested in this topic you can read more in my 2015 publication "Thinking like MacGyver: Substituting resourcefulness for resources in small businesses." I know it's just a book chapter, but writing it made me think particularly deeply about the antecedents to resourcefulness - cognitions, affect, heuristics and biases, and prior knowledge - and how resourcefulness can lead to entrepreneurial actions such as bricolage, causation, effectuation, or improvisation. The relationship between resourcefulness and entrepreneurial action can be moderated by resource constraints and the task environment (context). For example, MacGyver usually worked in a task environment that was highly constrained by time; great suspense every show to see if and how he could get out of a tough situation.

My point in writing the chapter was to show how small business managers - usually constrained by resource limitations - can rely on their own resourcefulness to take entrepreneurial actions to grow. Resourcefulness can be seen as an ability that allows small business owners and managers to identify business opportunities and to regulate and direct behaviors accordingly to make the best use of these opportunities. I'll leave you with an example involving ice cream. In St. Louis, Missouri, during the 1904 Saint Louis Exposition, the Banner Creamery’s owner, George Bang, was making a brisk business selling ice cream until he ran out of bowls. Desperate to continue his sales, he allegedly improvised with rolled-up waffles from a neighboring vendor to serve it in instead. Tip your cone to Mr. George Bang next time you have some ice cream! Plus, look at what he had to compete against for attention!

MGT 387 Spring 2020

Ralph the Dog

War Machine. This LEGO tank is designed to mimic a tank that would be in a war.

Larry from Florida! His life goal is to travel to Nevada with his dog Perry!

Lightbird

Alert Box alerts when a plane is about to land

Lebron

Starlink 42, a humble satellite. It is a component of the web of internet connectivity satellites designed by SpaceX. What it lacks in size it makes up for in true grit and determination.