TOWER BUILDING : Real Time Lessons

How an organisation works ?........

This was the idea  shared by Prof.  Mandi , when he discussed the tower building exercise  in the class.  Most of the students in the class came with their perceived responses.  He asked us to explain it vis-a-vis the role of a manager in the company.  In order to explain the concept, he conducted tower building exercise.

He asked us bid in order to be a part of the exercise.  Most of the student were hesitant to come forward. Finally three guys participated in the biding process. All three of them were invited by the Prof  to participate in the exercise. He then said ," This is the difference between leaders & workers". One of the most important quality of a leader or manager is to take risk and out of 70 odd students in the class only three had that capabilities.

Tower Building Exercise Description  

Task was to built tower from cubes with eyes blindfolded . Another twist was that one has to use non dexterous hand.
Role of each member was defined :
1st member - Worker
2nd member - Middle Management
3rd member - Senior Management

Those who bid to participate were in dilemma whether they made a right choice or not.

Prof . Mandi then  invited the whole class to make  wild guess about the number of  cubes team will able to surmount.  This is what most to students thought.

Lowest height that can be achieved	4	5	6
Highest height that can be achieved	8	12	16

Prof. explained what was expected  from the three members. The one who selected by the team as the worker will take upon the responsibility of making the tower. Member representing middle management will give directions to the worker. His or her would be to guide the worker whenever the need arises.  In case of difficult situation  middle manager can take help form senior management.

It was left to the  team to decide their target, The team decided to strive for  18 cubes.

Now the real purpose of the session started.  It was wholesome learning ; watching different team members  communicating , chalking out the plan to face the difficult situation.  The whole atmosphere was electric. We were clapping ,encouraging the team to do better. Prof. was explaining the intricacies & subtle behavior involved through the principle of management.

I enjoyed the session thoroughly. I was able to understand why flow of right information , unity of command , unity of direction  etc are needed for company or organisation to perform better.

Last but not the least , Team was able to achieve their target of 18 towers proving the old adage " where there's a will there's a way".

Team Members & Prof. Mandi elated after achieving the target.