Over 4,000 fourth and fifth graders have been through the 2+2=5 program. Not a single team began an activity by developing a strategy before jumping in first. No sooner does the facilitator begin explaining the instructions than do the children dive headfirst into the activity’s materials, often being wasteful of their resources. One of the biggest wastes of resources of course was time.
That is, of course, until week eight of the program, when the facilitators teach the lesson of “problem solving.” When we get into a new project, we can be often overcome with emotions: excitement, enthusiasm, frustration, or discouragement. These emotions often get in the way of clear, rationale thought, which would tell us that it is logical and reasonable to form a strategy before beginning to solve a problem or complete a task.
Sometimes we are under such a time crunch to complete the project that we forgo strategizing in order to “save” time or what we perceive as saving time. Forgoing strategizing is typically a time cost rather than a time saver and responsible, high performing teams recognize the benefit of strategizing. Leah, a fourth grader, said “We only had twenty minutes to finish the project, we were all in a rush, but we had to talk about it first so everyone else wouldn’t be doing something different.”
The act of merely strategizing is not the be all and end all of problem solving. Teams must not only strategize, but strategize effectively in order to identify solutions that they might not have thought of had they recklessly jumped into the activity. In business, its a little different than fourth or fifth graders. Teams usually do form a strategybefore beginning, but herein lies the problem: teams that do form a strategy treat is as an imovable, static, unchanging plan. Strategies, in order for them to be effective, need to be re-evaluated several times during the project. Teams must take the time necessary to “take stock” and evaluate the plan and the need for adjustments to the plan. Just because you’ve formed a strategy doesn’t mean the team should just stick to that without considering the need for change.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/badjonni/474558791/
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