Groups typically over-engineer the results, use more materials than they need to, and don’t collaborate effectively when given a full hour. Many members are idle. More knots are tied in the ‘architecture’ of the fort.

When we process this with the group we ask them to repeat the exercise, using the same materials, but we give them only 5 minutes to achieve the task.

The current winning record time?

42 *seconds* for a group of 24 people to create a structure that completely encloses them, stands on its own, and has an entrance. The structure they created was elegant, used minimal materials, and obviously involved extreme leadership, extreme collaboration.

This is not an exceptional group, either. When we give groups an hour, they take 30 minutes; when we give them 10 minutes, they take 5; when we give them 5 minutes, they take 1.

Yet these same people would also tell you they don’t ever have enough resources to achieve the goals they’ve been given (or chosen) for their organization.

Perhaps being ‘forced to ship’ cuts the waste, turns off the internal dialogue, and gives the brains of a team a clear flow from inspiration to output.

And I’m pretty sure that “to do is to be” is theatrical in origins. Maybe from the Strasberg school.

And dammit, yeah, let’s be great!

Very much agree with your premise – the shorter the time frame, the more that gets done, and often more clearly, because decisive choices must be made.

Your sketches are a great example!

The principle of rapid iteration is one that also plays out here – allowing for the constraint of time to serve in place of the dreaded “committee” against which we often bounce ideas that otherwise would have lived!

To do is to be, and to be is to do. Brings to mind Microsoft’s practice of “release early, and release often”. The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good.

Here’s to being really good!