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Several years ago here at TED, Peter Skillman

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introduced a design challenge

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called the marshmallow challenge.

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And the idea's pretty simple:

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Teams of four have to build the tallest free-standing structure

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out of 20 sticks of spaghetti,

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one yard of tape, one yard of string

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and a marshmallow.

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The marshmallow has to be on top.

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And, though it seems really simple, it's actually pretty hard

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because it forces people

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to collaborate very quickly.

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And so, I thought this was an interesting idea,

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and I incorporated it into a design workshop.

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And it was a huge success.

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And since then, I've conducted

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about 70 design workshops across the world

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with students and designers and architects,

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even the CTOs of the Fortune 50,

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and there's something about this exercise 

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that reveals very deep lessons

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about the nature of collaboration,

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and I'd like to share some of them with you.

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So, normally, most people begin

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by orienting themselves to the task.

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They talk about it, they figure out what it's going to look like,

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they jockey for power.

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Then they spend some time planning, organizing,

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they sketch and they lay out spaghetti.

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They spend the majority of their time

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assembling the sticks into ever-growing structures.

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And then finally, just as they're running out of time,

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someone takes out the marshmallow,

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and then they gingerly put it on top,

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and then they stand back, and -- ta-da! --

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they admire their work.

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But what really happens, most of the time,

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is that the "ta-da" turns into an "uh-oh,"

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because the weight of the marshmallow causes the entire structure

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to buckle and to collapse.

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So there are a number of people

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who have a lot more "uh-oh" moments than others,

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and among the worst are recent graduates of business school.

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(Laughter)

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They lie, they cheat, they get distracted

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and they produce really lame structures.

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And of course there are teams

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that have a lot more "ta-da" structures,

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and among the best are recent graduates of kindergarten.

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(Laughter)

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And it's pretty amazing.

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As Peter tells us,

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not only do they produce the tallest structures,

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but they're the most interesting structures of them all.

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So the question you want to ask is:

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How come? Why? What is it about them?

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And Peter likes to say that

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none of the kids spend any time

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trying to be CEO of Spaghetti, Inc. Right?

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They don't spend time jockeying for power.

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But there's another reason as well.

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And the reason is that business students are trained

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to find the single right plan, right?

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And then they execute on it.

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And then what happens is, when they put the marshmallow on the top,

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they run out of time and what happens?

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It's a crisis.

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Sound familiar? Right.

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What kindergarteners do differently

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is that they start with the marshmallow,

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and they build prototypes, successive prototypes,

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always keeping the marshmallow on top,

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so they have multiple times to fix when they build prototypes along the way.

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Designers recognize this type of collaboration

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as the essence of the iterative process.

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And with each version, kids get instant feedback

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about what works and what doesn't work.

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So the capacity to play in prototype is really essential,

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but let's look at how different teams perform.

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So the average for most people is around 20 inches;

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business schools students, about half of that;

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lawyers, a little better, but not much better than that,

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kindergarteners, better than most adults.

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Who does the very best?

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Architects and engineers, thankfully.

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(Laughter)

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Thirty-nine inches is the tallest structure I've seen.

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And why is it? Because they understand triangles

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and self-reinforcing geometrical patterns

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are the key to building

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stable structures.

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So CEOs, a little bit better than average,

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but here's where it gets interesting.

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If you put you put an executive admin. on the team,

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they get significantly better.

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(Laughter)

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It's incredible. You know, you look around, you go, "Oh, that team's going to win."

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You can just tell beforehand. And why is that?

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Because they have special skills

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of facilitation.

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They manage the process, they understand the process.

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And any team who manages

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and pays close attention to work

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will significantly improve the team's performance.

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Specialized skills and facilitation skills

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are the combination that leads to strong success.

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If you have 10 teams that typically perform,

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you'll get maybe six or so that have standing structures.

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And I tried something interesting.

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I thought, let's up the ante, once.

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So I offered a 10,000 dollar prize of software to the winning team.

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So what do you think happened to these design students?

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What was the result?

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Here's what happened:

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Not one team had a standing structure.

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If anyone had built, say, a one inch structure,

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they would have taken home the prize.

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So, isn't that interesting? That high stakes

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have a strong impact.

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We did the exercise again with the same students.

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What do you think happened then?

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So now they understand the value of prototyping.

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So the same team went from being the very worst

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to being among the very best.

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They produced the tallest structures in the least amount of time.

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So there's deep lessons for us

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about the nature of incentives and success.

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So, you might ask: Why would anyone

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actually spend time writing a marshmallow challenge?

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And the reason is, I help create

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digital tools and processes

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to help teams build cars and video games

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and visual effects.

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And what the marshmallow challenge does

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is it helps them identify the hidden assumptions.

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Because, frankly,

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every project has its own marshmallow, doesn't it?

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The challenge provides a shared experience,

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a common language,

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a common stance to build the right prototype.

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And so, this is the value of the experience,

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of this so simple exercise.

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And those of you who are interested

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may want to go to MarshmallowChallenge.com.

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It's a blog that you can look at

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how to build the marshmallows.

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There's step-by-step instructions on this.

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There are crazy examples from around the world

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of how people tweak and adjust the system.

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There's world records that are on this as well.

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And the fundamental lesson, I believe,

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is that design truly is

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a contact sport.

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It demands that we bring all of our senses to the task,

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and that we apply the very best of our thinking,

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our feeling and our doing

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to the challenge that we have at hand.

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And sometimes, a little prototype of this experience

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is all that it takes to turn us

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from an "uh-oh" moment to a "ta-da" moment.

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And that can make a big difference.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)