EQ + Design Thinking Marshmallow Team Challenge

At Six Seconds, we've used variations on this activity MANY times over the years -- you give each team some dried spaghetti and marshmallows and they have to build a tower.

This TED Talk provided an excellent way of framing the exercise -- I'd give groups the challenge, give them 5 min to try, then stop them.

Show the video.

Discuss the implications in terms of the Change MAP -- iterative cycles of Engage / Activate / Reflect. The importance of using your EQ to bring people together and get OUT of individual & collective patterns. Link the concepts of DESIGN THINKING and the power of EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE to get us in the right state to be able to use this kind of process.

(Also, really interesting theme here about extrinsic motivation vs intrinsic)

Then have them "benchmark" by looking @ one another's work and what is helping/hurting progress.

Then restart the activity inviting them to consciously, actively use their EQ skills to Engage, Activate, Reflect their way through the process.

Voila!

Plus, check out marshmallowchallenge.com



Have fun!
🙂

- Josh