You Are Not in Control

Timing: 30-45 mins

Ingredients:

• Four unique paper airplane instructions, one set for each team.
• A big stack of standard size white papers and a smaller stack of yellow papers.

Directions:

In teams of 4 or more, have participants create as many paper airplanes as possible. When thrown from behind a table at one end of the room, airplanes must cross the room and touch the opposite wall.

The facilitator, playing the role of the customer, can reject any planes that do not meet their quality standards.

Track the number of planes created/approved, time to get the first plane approved, time to absorb a new team member, time to incorporate a new requirement (first yellow plane).

First pass: Self organizing and cross functional teams.

No roles or responsibilities. No prep time. Provide each team one paper airplane instruction, the same for all teams. Go!

Second pass: command and control with specialists.

Create new teams.

Team members may only perform one of the following functions:

• Folder: Can fold paper so that the surfaces remain in contact.
• Bender: Can bend the paper into a new angle, so long as the surfaces are not touching (this would be the job of the Folder).
• Pilot: May do final adjustments to elevators.

A team member may change their role; however they must leave for 1 minute to attend training. A Project Manager is in charge of overall quality. They must establish the steps and tasks for each team member. Give the team 5 minutes to prepare their process. Go!

Run exercise for 5-10 minutes for each pass. After two-four minutes, swap one team member from each team.

After three – six minutes, put in a special order for yellow planes. Offer bonus of ten points per yellow plane.

Learning Points:

• Self organizing and cross functional teams are better able to adapt to changes in than those driven by command and control with specialists.
• In addition, they are faster at getting to market and more productive.

Posted by Mike

Written by: Michael McCullough on June 20, 2009.
Last revised by: Tatyana Yanush on October 21, 2011.