Question 1: Groups & Teams (5 points)

The Team-Building Exercise

During the course of a team building seminar, a management consultant divided participants into two teams of four individuals (the Sierra Team and the Tango Team), and had the teams compete in two challenges to build the longest chain of paper loops. To complete these challenges, each team was provided with one pair of scissors, one roll of tape, and four sheets of paper. For the first challenge, the teams were given 2 minutes to complete the task and told to go ahead. Both teams began working without any prior discussion. Members of both teams grabbed pieces of paper and started folding them. After a while, one member of the Sierra Team suggested to her team that if one person cut a stack of paper, then it would be more effective. So, the Sierra Team passed all their paper to one person and she unfolded the papers, took the scissors, and started cutting medium length strips from the unfolded papers. The Tango Team had continued with some members folding their papers and one member grabbed the scissors and began cutting her folded paper into short strips. Once both teams had some strips of paper, they both realized that an effective way to make the looped chain was to have two people work together. One person would thread a strip of paper to an existing loop and make a second loop; the other person would tape the second loop together. Then the first person would thread and loop another strip of paper to the chain and the second person would tape that loop together. On both teams, one team member sat quietly and did nothing for most of the challenge, and one team member continued folding and cutting or ripping paper until the time ran out. The Sierra Team won the first challenge.

For the second challenge, each team nominated one of its members to be the leader and the management consultant took the two leaders out of the room and explained the rules for the second challenge. The goal was the same: to build the longest chain of paper loops, but the rules were that each team member could only use one hand (their dominant hand) and no one would be allowed to talk once the challenge began. The management consultant gave the team leaders 30 seconds to explain these rules to their teams and for the teams to work out how they would proceed. During the 30 seconds, both teams discussed the need to work in pairs, and to divide the task up into cutting the paper strips and making the loop chain. Both teams also discussed having one team member prepare pieces of tape in advance and stick them to the table so they would be ready to make the loops when the paper strips were ready. Once the 30 seconds of planning was complete, the teams were instructed to start the task and were given 1 minute and 30 seconds to complete it. The pair on the Sierra Team that was cutting the paper struggled to keep the paper steady while it was being cut, putting it down on the table, spinning it around, and looking at each other in exasperation, but finally managing to cut it on the shorter edge. The cutting pair on the Tango Team worked more quickly with one person holding the papers in the air and the other cutting them on the longer edge. After preparing several pieces of tape during the initial 30 seconds, members of both teams who were charged with making the loops began grabbing the strips of paper that had been cut, and started to make their chains. Both looping teams followed the same process; that is, one person threaded a strip of paper through a loop and the other taped that new loop together. Preparing more paper strips also continued during this time. After about 45 seconds, both teams appeared to switch gears. On the Sierra Team, the cutting pair stopped cutting, got up from their chairs and walked closer to where the looping pair were sitting. Then, all four team members tried to work to put more loops on their single chain at the same time. Their pace got more frenzied in the last few seconds of the challenge. On the Tango Team, one member of the original cutting pair grabbed the tape dispenser at the 45-second point, and the cutting pair stopped cutting and started to make a second chain. When there were only a few seconds left, the Tango Team frantically started to attach the two chains together. In the end, the Tango Team won the second challenge. In comparison with the first challenge, chains made by both teams in the second challenge were longer.

Question

Apply the theory of punctuated equilibrium to explain why the performance of both teams was higher in the second challenge as compared to the performance of both teams in the first challenge. In your answer, be sure to discuss how multiple aspects of punctuated equilibrium may have applied to both challenges and use information from the case to support answer.

WORD LIMIT: 500 words. Make sure you include a word count with your answer.