Kevin with his team and straw structure (photo: Alan Wu).
Throughout your engineering student lives, you had to work with teams to complete projects. Along the way, you experienced working in both good and bad teams. How can you as a developing leader inspire others to deliver high quality work?
Wanting to learn more about teamwork, I participated in ILead’s Team Skills Certificate Program on November 8 at GB202. I chose to participate in this program because I want to learn how to use my expressive leadership style to motivate teams and organizations with diverse backgrounds.
The event was full of great learning activities, but if there was one thing that stood out for me, it would definitely be the “egg challenge.” For this challenge, we formed teams and had to build a freestanding structure made out of just straws and tape to hold an egg as high as possible from the ground in only 10 minutes. The team with the egg standing the highest from the ground wins. If at any point the egg breaks, the team would be disqualified.
Before getting to the challenge, everyone filled out a “preferred working style inventory” that would determine their preferred leadership style, developed by Bolton & Bolton’s People Styles at Work (1996). Everyone then split into four groups: analytical, driver, amiable, and expressive. Each of these types had distinct preferences for how they would naturally behave in team situations; check out the Leadership Styles chapter of ILead’s Handbook for Student Leaders (pdf). Within those groups, we were numbered so that the resulting teams had a mix of people representing all four leadership styles.
In my team, there were two expressives, including myself, and one of each of the other styles, making a team of five. Everyone was excited to do the challenge and win it. We started by trying to discuss what kind of base the egg would be supported by. I suggested a square base, and everyone went along with it. We took straws, and just taped it to the ground such that it would make a square. The hard part was figuring out how to construct the pillars of the structure. The analytical pointed out that pillars that stand straight up supported by tape on the ground and at top might not be enough for the egg to hold.
At this point, we were told that we have five minutes left! As we struggled to get more ideas, the amiable decided to go around the room and spy what the other teams are doing. The driver encouraged us to start building something even without a clear idea. The amiable came back and suggested to incorporate the analytical’s idea, but to also add crosslinks interacting with the pillars. With only three minutes left, we rushed to build the pillars, but there was nothing on the structure to hold the egg. With one minute left, the other expressive decided to just take the smaller straws, make an enclosed shape out of it, and put lots of tape such that the egg can just sit there. We then taped that on the top of the structure, and thank goodness the egg is safe! We didn’t end up winning the challenge, but it was a really dynamic experience.
ILead’s Team Skills Certificate was a very interactive workshop that helped me become more confident in using my strengths and leadership style in order to work well with teams. The egg challenge definitely showed me that diverse teams with a common purpose and a winning mindset can go a long way. It also taught me that teams will encounter problems along the way, and that they have to make quick decisions when pressed for time. As a final thought, leadership skills are best learned by applying them in real-life situations. The Team Skills Certificate Program was a worthwhile experience.
-Kevin Saludares