Spaghetti Challenge in Team Work and Collaboration - Essay Example

            Every project must have a budget; there is an estimated budget for any project that the client is willing and ready to spend. This budget is worked upon by the client together with the project manager. The budget must contain an additional just in case money is thoroughly monitored. A project manager must account for all the money that is spent on the construction this is done by availing all the receipts and stock-taking to the client all through the project. Equipment that is rented must be kept in good condition to reduce fines and damages that can be incurred.

            Time is an essential factor in any project. A client will expect a working timeline when contracting. Time constraint is the limited time the constructor has to work to work under growing pressure to finish the project without any defects or additional costs. The timeline will include the designing of the project blueprint as seen in the spaghetti challenge as well as the construction time. The objectives outlined that need to be achieved in order to meet the client’s needs must be completed in time within cost and quality as expected.

            Most contracts will have a penalty section in case of any breach of terms and conditions, a real-world big scale construction project will includes a contract with the terms and conditions that must include the timeline and various fines if there is a breach of these terms. These penalties impose an obligation on the construction company to fulfill its duties and objectives in a given time to avoid breaching the contract hence paying damages. A real-world big-scale construction project must also consider conducting various test factors that may affect the strength and stability of a structure. These factors must be put in the blueprint before the start of the project and properly reinforced to avoid disaster and casualties.

            Bonuses can be added as incentives to motivate the workers to do quality jobs in a limited amount of time, this is successfully employed in a highly competitive field; bonuses help a team work together identifying problems and sharing solutions. In our spaghetti challenge, the bonuses have been offered in various stages and for finishing specific tasks this also happens in a real-world big scale construction project where a team is expected to run into unpredictable structural problems, there will be increased morale to come up with useful ideas in order to gain the bonuses offered.

            A real-world big scale construction project involves the more sophisticated structural design and this offers a widespread ground for exploration and innovation to the team as they search for various ways to increase stability to support greater height this can be seen as an added advantage and a fun challenge in problem-solving and creative thinking. This contributes to team spirit.

Critical factors for success and failure

            Tasks involve planning and organizing to achieve a set objective. According to the results, the factor that contributed to the success or failure of a group was the time each group spent on the planning and organizing stage. The groups that spent more time on the planning time did better than those that spent more time on the construction. This is because coming up with a plan and a prototype enhances the quality of the construction.

            A skilled leader can also affect the performance of a group, a team leader who manages their team and pays close attention to the work substantially improves the team’s performance. The team leader must be able to delegate and get along with all the members. These skills have the combination that leads to strong success. However failure may be evident in a group where everybody was trying to contend for power in the group, this reduces the level of collaboration and teamwork leading to failure. The use of incentives and bonuses may work to motivate the students; however, they may also act as a substitute for teamwork and skills. This will be a factor in the success or failure of a group.

            In a similar challenge with the limited amount of time given I would spend more time building, testing, and repeating until I get a strong structure that works. Encouraging creativity and innovation among the group members also goes a long way; listening to the opinion of the other group members and encouraging brainstorming, would enhance originality and collaboration (Hutchinson &Lawrence, 2011). Using the construction materials wisely instead of in a wasteful manner would also be considered. Follow up on individual task assignments and execution and analyzing the roles played by different individuals would help streamline the task and increase the chances of success.

Conclusion

            The spaghetti challenge is a good task for people of all ages to learn teamwork and collaboration, it brings together people with different skills and encourages them to work as a team furthering the same objective. The objective can be done in schools as well as in company-building challenges. It encourages innovation and creativity and brings out leadership qualities where necessary, it can be used in companies to increase the worker's morale and boost confidence. This activity is done for fun as well as a constructive method to help with adapting strategies and internalizing lessons of teamwork and leadership.