20.
The Art of Structural Integrity
Structural integrity: The ability of something to hold together under its own weight and whatever load is placed on it or in it.^16
Each building is designed to hold its own weight of construction and anything placed inside of it. I’m sitting in my home right now and trusting that those who built the house followed the design of the architect, put enough screws and nails in place, and built the house without “cutting corners.” If the house is not built to withstand its own weight, then a strong wind or even the furniture I put inside can weaken its connections and cause it to crumble—with me inside of it.
Tom Wujec, the founder of The Wujec Group and frequent TED Conference speaker, designed a teamwork challenge called the “Marshmallow Challenge.” Teams were given twenty sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. They had eighteen minutes to build the tallest free-standing structure that could hold the weight of the marshmallow on top. The marshmallow could not be eaten or divided up into different parts, but they could utilize all the other items to build the tallest structure that would hold the marshmallow.
Sound easy? Think again. This challenge has been given to executives, CEOs, teachers, college students, and even kindergartners. Which group do you think scored the best?
The kindergartners!
Actually, the teams that scored the highest were architects and engineers, but among all the others, kindergartners scored the best. They understood that the structural integrity of the spaghetti/tape/string tower was best when the structural integrity of the team was sound. How can that be?
With kindergartners, no one was trying to gain power. No one was trying to be the one who got the credit. There was the task, the team, and the goal to