Assignment 2 CET765
Sandy Nightingale
Paper Clip Chain Activity:
What Motivates Individuals and Organizations to Make and Sustain Change
I conducted the Paper Clip Chain activity
with 6 children, a 9-year old, a 10-year old, two 13-year olds, and two 15
year-olds. During the first round, they
produced only 3 chains, but during the second round, they produced 18.
It was very interesting watching them
during the first round. They were all
very impatient while waiting around for the paper clips to be passed to
them. Since they were not able to talk,
they found other ways to communicate their thoughts. First came the dirty
looks when someone wasn’t keeping up!
Then came frustration when they couldn’t communicate
to tell the person before them that a mistake had been made in the
counting. The Inspector counted only 19 paper clips in one of the chains that had
been passed on to her and didn’t know what she was supposed to do with it. Tears even started to appear in her eyes (she
was the 9-year old). She finally passed
it on to the Time Keeper who gave it
right back to her because she had been watching the counting and knew that it
wasn’t right. The Time Keeper motioned toward the Stringer,
so the Inspector passed it back to
the Stringer. The Stringer
was extremely flustered and gave a big sigh as she recounted quickly. In her rush, she still counted incorrectly
and gave it back to the Inspector. The Inspector
recounted again and gave it back again.
They finally just gave up and passed it on to the Time Keeper. When the time
was up, they all gave a sigh of relief and were glad to be done, but they also
knew they hadn’t produced as many chains as they should have. One of them said, “I hope I never have to
work in a factory! That was awful!” They expressed frustration and even
irritation with each other. They also
said that they wished that they could have communicated so that they could have
helped each other fix the mistakes. The
nine-year old said, “I just felt like giving up!” They also expressed frustration with all the
wasted time while they were waiting for the paper clips to be passed to them.
Round 2 was also very interesting. When I told them that they were going to work
together to come up with a plan on how they could produce more paper clip
chains faster, using any way they wanted, they instantly found a renewed
energy. They decided to have one person
be the Time Keeper, Box Opener, and Inspector. The rest of them,
including the Production Boss,
counted and strung their own chains and then passed them on to the Inspector.
They worked very quietly with determination, even though they were
allowed to talk. Every once in a while
they would ask the Time Keeper how
much time was left. When there was about
30 seconds left, one of them said, “I only have 10 on my string, does anyone
else have some that we could connect?”
In that way, they were able to get one last chain completed right before
the time was up. They were so excited to
see that they had improved so dramatically from Round 1! The atmosphere was so much more positive and
cooperative. The Time Keeper/ Box Opener/Inspector said that it was a relief to be
able to choose her job this time because she didn’t think she would have been
very good at making chains quickly. She
had enough to keep her busy, but not to the point of frustration. They all said that they were glad that they
didn’t have to stand around wasting time while they were waiting for the paper
clips to get to them. This time, not one
chain was rejected because it didn’t have the correct number of paper
clips. They were proud of the amount of
work they had accomplished.
When both rounds were completed, I asked
them what factors they thought helped them to become more productive the second
time. They expressed some of the same
things that I observed and that they had mentioned in the earlier
discussions. Being given the option of
choice was a big factor in improving productivity. Choosing their own plan of attack and
choosing their own jobs led to a better attitude and more productivity. Being able to communicate and work together
made them feel like more of a team moving toward the same goal. This took the pressure off the
individuals. They had a more positive
attitude towards one another, being on the same team. They better enjoyed doing the tasks under
these conditions, thus improving productivity.
There was still a little element of competition, pushing themselves to
complete more chains the second time than they had the first time. The good feelings and positive attitudes
after completing the second round, along with pride in their accomplishments,
and not wanting to let down their team, would help to sustain the motivation to
keep improving.