Why do only 50 per cent of people get this exercise right? Alternatively, 50 per cent get it wrong; and we have conducted this exercise many times.
A couple of weeks ago we conducted a three-day intensive training workshop in Malaysia.
Three full eight hour days many seem a stretch, but the feedback was sensational with many participants scoring the workshop 10/10.
The topic was innovation (of course) and the “Commercialisation of Technology”.
The attendees were split into teams (simulated companies) and asked to explore various questions and problem solve. The aim was to show how different people view the same problem from different perspectives.
The exercise
Consider a race between two people where there are two laps of an athletics track.
On the first lap, they will both walk and on the second lap, they will both run.
In this case one person wins, let us say by ten seconds.
Assume in the exercise that nobody gets tired, no matter which order the laps are conducted.
The question: If we now reverse the order of the legs to that on the first lap they run then on the second lap they walk, will the winning distance between the first and second place be different?
Not only were the teams asked to answer the question, there being only two possible answers, “SAME” or DIFFERENT”, but they were also asked to prove their answer using a real experiment in the conference room as we watched.
As expected the participants were split with their answers, but the exercise was a huge “hit” with everybody involved and looking on during the simulation; and as it happened, cheering when their correct answer emerged.
A great and entertaining exercise in thinking.
Roger La Salle, www.innovationtraining.com.au
