Marshmallows and Leadership

What do 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, and one yard of string, and a marshmallow have in common with Christian leadership? Tom Wujec, a fellow at Autodesk, describes this “marshmallow challenge” as an experience of "forced collaboration." The premise is simple—groups of four attempt to build the highest structure using the aforementioned materials in only 18 minutes.

Most of the groups tended to begin by orienting themselves to the task, and thus making a plan. With the crunch of the 18-minute limit, most groups’ plans ended in “uh-oh” moments. Business students’ structures were some of the most likely to fall because college trained them to find the "single right plan.” Those with specialized skills (engineers) or kindergartners tended to do well. Kindergartners did well because they learned from the iterative process—making prototypes and seeing they worked, rather than planning the whole process.

Once Wujec offered a 10,000 dollar prize to see what would happen in the experience. When the pressure was on, not one group had a standing structure. When given a second chance, the groups finally learned the value of protyping.

Thus, Wujec concluded that generally Specialized Skills plus Facilitation Skills=Success. Even more, Wujec argues, “Every project has its own marshmallow.”

Normally I'm usually not a “fan” of business oriented models of leadership, but in this case Wujec is onto something. What if Christian leaders actually placed people based on gifting rather than need alone? What if we moved away from trying to “find the one plan” and sought to work together

Two Words that Kill Passion

In this blog post, author Donald Miller reflects on a conversation with a friend who is a surgeon. Miller asked the surgeon, “Why do you desire to help so many people?” The surgeon replied, “Because it’s fun…I like helping people because I enjoy it, I’m the opposite of an evangelical.” Miller was speechless for a moment, reflecting later, “I had nothing to say. I was so accustomed to the passive guilt complex so many of us hear week after week and in book after book that I knew he’d have no shortage of evidence that Evangelicals are constantly being made to do good things they don’t really feel like doing.”

Acts highlights joy as a major characteristic of the early church. The followers were passionate and enjoying serving others for Christ, sans guilt trip. Miller then argues, passion is killed by ought-tos. As leaders, are we so suffocated by our to-do list, things we should do, that we realize we’ve gone an entire day without enjoyment in our work? An entire week? Forbid, an entire year passion-less? Do you feel guilty after not completing all of your ought-tos? Do you feel guilty even when you do?

If leaders stepped away from their “ought tos” and began to seek to serve within their skill set and passion, they would be more effective. So the issue seems to come to two questions: are we ministering out of our spiritual gifts, first, and are we being joyful in our work? Because, as we learned this week, our attitudes are contagious.