The Straw bridge experience was awesome! I liked observing the leadership skills during this project. No one was formally labeled a leader or was told to take charge; instead you saw the idea of informal roles emerging to get the job done. I believe this is essential in-group work with out some form of a leader nothing gets accomplished effectively. I think competition drove us to completion. We were driven to beat the previous class that held 195lbs, we wanted to hold that title of the best straw bridge and we seriously kicked ass!
I agree with Madhu that the voting possess was very democratic, which is safe and productive. (You don’t have to worry about stepping on anyone’s toes, majority rules lol listening to my role fixation) Nikki it is true that we had cohesiveness at that very moment of our final design of the straw bridge; but I also believe that we felt even more cohesiveness when the task was completed. I think feeling that success after the project left us confident and closer as a group. I give mad props to Skye for thinking of the chair idea, without that we wouldn't have gotten even close to 250 pounds.

Regarding the straw platform experience from class, I'm just glad no one got hurt...
As far as concepts mentioned in the book that were at work , it was pretty clear that a SYSTEM was at work. Our INPUT being our groups, the straws etc. We also had THROUGHPUT, which was basically the many groups by brainstorming ideas for possible straw structures. All this lead to our more than successful OUTPUT.

Madhu: I really agree with your message, there really was a good balance of individualism and collectivism from which we all benefited.

I think that the straw bridge idea was a great example of synergy. Taking all those fragile plastic straws and coming up with a way to support 220lbs was pretty incredible in itself, but the idea process seemed pretty remarkable. I think each one of the groups had great ideas for supporting the weight, and each one on its own was synergistic, but we had an even better synergy with the whole class (although the fact that we had so many people in the design process almost seemed like it was going to prevent the bridge from ever being erected). I thought that was a great group project that really formed a practical example of group work.

It seemed interesting to me that James thought of the straw bridge design process as competition, but in the end it definitely makes sense because I figure even though we all wanted a project that worked great in the end, each one of us probably wanted the design used to be our own. It makes even more sense that he considered it constructive competition, because in the end the competition did definitely help the design process and enabled us to create such a great design.

Building the straw bridge was a product of several small groups brainstorming and coming up with a collaboration of ideas. I agreed with Walt’s post, specifically the part about synergy. I think that the class as a group definitely exceeded our own individual abilities. We engaged in competition when we drew up individual ideas and also compromised in order to create the strongest bridge.

During the straw platform experience, synergy was definantly a part of the bridge experience because I dont think anyone was expecting it to hold 255 pounds. Also brainstorming and comprimise was a big part before the actual production of the bridge, because there was no idea on the board like what we constructed, but it was created by brainstorming some of the ideas and tied it all into one bridge. There was a good level of cohesiveness while constructing the bridge because everything went pretty smoothly with everyone building parts of the bridge.

I agree with nikki about the maximum potential because once everyone was working towards the same goal, we started to see new and different strategies of tieing the straws together for better strength for example the melting of the straws.

 First thing I saw when doing the straw project, was every group was competing to see who can come up with the most productive idea. Even though we were competing amongst our classmates. We came together an joined all of the ideas that seemed worthy enough to apply in our project and it worked efficiently. I also saw students listening to each other ideas which is a big part in a project like the one we did. All in all I thought we worked as a team.

So, this concept of synergy... it works. Although I do find it funny that people started taping the bridge when the idea wasn't originally mentioned in any design. In the end, the bridge proved to be stronger than I thought and it was thanks to the combination of genuis ideas from the students in our class.
Oh, and by now I'm sure that everyone understands the roles of productivity and cohesiveness in this experiment so I shall refrain from restating the obvious. =D

 Phillip and nikki, I agree we didn't achieve our goal by staying in the smaller groups, our maximum potential came through when came as an whole an we let our ideas and minds flow and come together that is how we achieved our goal and in a sense we over achieved no one thought it would hold 255 pds. That shit was crazy.

building the straw brige was so much fun. The whole class had not only brainstomed as philip teachout has said but also had been compleatly positive about the project and willing to compleate the goal. The synergy between poeple along with the power dimension was awesome. the three individuals who took the lead and then delagated all teh work to everyone else showed leadership in a non threatining way which was great.

To start this off, I agree with Phillip. This project show a great deal of synergy. This in class project was a great way to get the whole class in involved. At first I htought it was going to be a group on gropu competition and we would be competing with the other gropus to see who's bridge could hold the most wieght. I thought is was good that we all were able to put aside everything and bring our ideas together It hsowed great leadership skills as Jeri had said before because there was not one specific leader but the whole class would come together ans shout out their ideas. Its was a good enviroment also because you could say your idea and this was such a crazy project that n one would put you idea down because it might just work. Throughout the project more people would build off the thers ideas and opinions and it made our final project even more better. We all showe great group effort by spliting up the work for each group and helpig the others out.

Jeri Spehar: nicely worded message. I like the idea of "informal roles." It's a way of getting things does with more creativity and insight. And the whole competition to completion thing... it was totally obvious that it motivated people to think of new ways to make a bride, even to the point of setting a new weight-holding record.

I also agree with Justin when he said it wans't the actual design of the bridge but the managment of people to complete smaller tasks because without the smaller groups helping with the straw stuffing and coming together with the ideas, the bridge would have never made it as far as it did

i noticed many concepts related to the book in our group activity involving straws, group roles were apparent in the different roles student played, the one who tested the final product (name?) was the primary leader. constructive competition was a big part, i definetely noticed the leader being psyched about a certain rigid bridge building technique, which sort of evolved somehow into the final product, which wasnt really related to the original design but worked really well. group cohesiveness was developed through evolution of idea, and the bridge building technique created a synergy which brought everyone into the design and creation of the bridge, although i tried to play devils advocate by pointing out some of the flaws and mostly i was ignored, which was ok because i wasn't too attached to building a bridge out of straws. i agree with justin about the brainstorming aspect which was our main focus, even through the building of the bridge because we never really agreed upon a plan, there were just some leaders who did things. i have one minute left! submit!

Working in small groups we were able to come up with four or five differnt methods of building the bridge. Then as a large unified group we were able to agree on a conprimise of two different approaches. The we devided into two more groups: the builders of the raw materials and the bridge builders. I have to admit the whole thing worked up much better than i ever could have hoped. It was deffinitly synergy in action.

I could have sworn Justin was gonna get a chairleg in the lung...