Tower building : The 4 intricate scenarios

Our last class in Principles of Management was about a tower building exercise, wherein each of us had to build a tower of small cubes stacked one above the other. The exercise was to teach us about goal setting done by managers. The following data was provided to us which presented 4 distinct scenarios and hence four distinct managers!

 

Index	Factors	I	II	III	IV
1	Lowest Tower height achieved	5	5	5	5
2	Highest Tower height achieved	18	20	21	23
3	Achievable Performance -(Estimate / Guess )	18+	20+	22+	25+
4	Goal proposed by the Manager	18	22	22	18
5	Goal proposed by the worker	12	12	12	20
6	Goal Mutually agreed for building the tower between worker and manager with the support of the manager	15	22	18	15
7	No. of cubes Tower manager and worker team could build at the end of the exercise	18	18	18	18
8.	The potential Tower Height	18	20	21	23

And here is my analysis of the 4 different scenarios after evaluating various parameters

Gaps	I	II	III	IV
Gap between Achieved performance and Achievable performance of tower	0	2	4	7
Gap between goal proposed by the manager and mutually agreed goal by team	3	0	4	3
Gap between goal proposed by the manager and the goal proposed by the worker	6	10	10	-2
Gap between goal proposed by the worker and mutually agreed goal by team	-3	-10	-6	5
Gap between achievable performance and potential	0	0	0	0
Gap between performance achieved and goal mutually agreed by manger and the worker	-3	4	0	-3
Gap between performance achieved and achievable goal	0	-2	-4	-7
Gap between the performance achieved and the potential	0	2	3	4

Let us analyse each of these 4 different situations in detail

Scenario 1- The manager proposes a goal equal to the highest height achieved in the past. i.e 18

The team though proposes a goal of 12, 6 cubes less than the one proposed by the manager. The manager gives heed to the workers and reduces the goal to 15, in order to reduce the pressure on the workers. The workers respond to the manager's initiative and surpass their initial goal of 15 and actually build a tower of 18 cubes, thereby achieving their potential. What we see here is that the manager is successful in achieving the goal initially set by him and co-ordinates effectively with his works. The manager is not a hard taskmaster, sets reasonable and achievable goals and gets his team motivated to achieve the goal.

Scenario 2- The manager proposes a goal of 22, which is greater than the height of any tower ever built

 Here we have an ambitious manager who likes to set high goals for his team. The workers propose a goal of 12 cubes, but the manager does not give heed to them and sets the target as 22! Here in this case, we have an highly ambitious manager who sets lofty goals and is unyielding to his workers' demands. He does not discuss with his workers and is adamant on the goal set by him. The outcome is that the team could only build a tower of 18 cubes, missing the manager's target as well as performing below potential.

Scenario 3- The manager proposes a goal of 22, which is greater than the height of any tower ever built

Here we have an ambitious manager who likes to set high goals for his team. The workers propose a goal of 12 cubes, but contrary to scenario 2, he gives heed to his team and reduces the goal to 18. Here we have a manager who does set lofty goals but consults with his team before going ahead with the final goal. The outcome is that the team meets the target set by the manager but still perform below potential.

Scenario 4- The manager here sets a reasonable and achivable goal of 20 cubes, which is quite less than the highest ever achieved

 The team here also considers itself to be good and set a goal of 18 for themselves. But the discussions between the manager and the workers lead them to concur at 15 cubes. This shows a possible lack of confidence in each other or communication gap. The outcome is that the team finally builds 18 cubes, surpassing the expectation but performing below potential.