What a simply elegant exercise

[NousDefionsDoc]

Originally Posted by Jimbo

I have experience with a similar type test. In the one I did, you had to guide assembly of a widget to a helper who was blindfolded. While the frustration levels produced were not as high as I imagine they would be with the OSS task, the exercise did help you learn to be very precise in your instructions and to try to understand the problem set as the blindfolded person understood it.

I like this version too. Imagine both of them together.

[SnafuRacer]

I had a similar experiment in a sociology class I took in college. The professor sat me on a table with my back to another student who had a desk in front of him. The professor assembled a simple puzzle composed of 6 objects of different shapes and colors. He told me that the other student has the same puzzle, that was not assembled. I was to guide the other guy into assembling the puzzle by providing directions. So I start telling him to get the triangular blue piece here, and join the square red one there, and the green rectangle to the right and so forth. We stayed at this for a good 10 min. The other student was not to speak, only to follow my directions. At the end of the experiment, he told us to compare the results. His puzzle was a mess, but more importantly, his puzzle was composed of 6 objects of DIFFERENT shapes and colors than mine. He was totally confused when I was giving him directions, and completly frustrated with my "stupidity" until he saw what puzzle I had myself.
The professor's lesson from this was that top excecutives and managers must be aware that the people at the bottom might not have all the information needed to accomplish their tasks, as well as the necessary guidance to accomplish correctly.There has to be some middle manager to translate the orders from higher down to his men as well as provide direct management.
Of course, it's not always that academia relates directly to corporate america, but sometimes, some concepts are rather enlightening.