Tom Wujec created the Spaghetti Challenge (known as the Marshmallow Challenge in the USA) because he wanted to offer companies and organizations an easy, agile and fun system to promote teamwork.
The objective of the Spagetti Challenge is simple: it is about building a tower as high as possible using only spaghetti, clouds of candy, twine and zeal.
Tom Wujec argues that whoever dares to build a spaghetti tower can build a team.
This dynamic is applicable to different scenarios, with very diverse audiences: from senior managers and primary school students to doctors, NGO members, bakers, vendors, etc. In all cases the results are similar, teamwork, creativity and innovation are strengthened.
I also use E l Challenge the spaghetti in my vocational training courses for adults at risk of exclusion with results that surprised me. Whenever I use this tool, it improves teamwork, I see the capacities for collaboration, leadership, empathy and creativity grow.
What you need to do is divide the class into groups and explain that each group must build a tower with the kit materials: spaghetti, heat, twine, and marshmallows. Each team has 18 minutes to build a tower as high as possible. The winning team is the one with the highest structure measured from the surface (the floor, a chair or a table) to the top of the tower, which must crown an entire marshmallow.
Teams are free to break spaghetti, cut twine, and heat to create new structures, but the marshmallow on top of the structure must be intact, if not whole, the team is disqualified.
At the end of the challenge
The towers are generally placed in the center of the room and the participants sit around to see and assess the structures. Probably just over half of the teams will have standing structures.
The winning team receives a standing ovation and an award.
Over the years I have seen a major trend: Children build better structures than business students. They are bolder, more innovative and create taller and more interesting structures.
The reason kids do better than business school students is because kids spend more time playing and prototyping. They naturally start with the marshmallow and nail the spaghetti, creating naturally.
Instead, Business School students spend a great deal of time planning, then executing on the plan, but they don't allow enough time to reformulate the design once they put the marshmallow on top.
Marshmallow metaphor
The marshmallow is a metaphor for the hidden assumptions of a project. We think the sweet or marshmallow clouds are light and fluffy and will not bear the load of spaghetti sticks.
But when we jump into action building the frame, marshmallows don't seem so light. One of the most important lessons of this challenge is that we need to identify the hidden assumptions in our project: be it the real needs of the client, the cost of the product, the duration of the service or any other issue. We must test our prototypes as soon as possible and continue to assess their effectiveness. That is the mechanism that leads to effective innovation.
In my professional practice I have used the Spaghetti Challenge with the most diverse materials, dry pasta, toothpicks or simple twisted and zealous papers.
On one occasion, I did the exercise adding one more stage to the exercise: at the end of the 18 minutes, the participants had to create a common tower made up of the towers of each team.
It was a success, all the participants stressed the importance of building something in common with the other groups.
At every opportunity, I see how this small / big challenge generates more creative, supportive and innovative teams.
