The Energy Equation

Chapter 5Collaboration and Interpersonal Services

One of the most memorable collaboration experiences I have had occurred in 1999 when I was invited to participate in a knowledge management training session hosted by Kent Greenes, SAIC's newly minted chief knowledge officer. There were about 15 of us in attendance, all open and eager to taste the cutting edge of knowledge management. The environment was ideal for learning and collaboration, and the group had bonded during our morning activities. In the afternoon Kent divided us into three teams of five people each and explained the rules of our next activity. Each team would be given a box of small wooden blocks, some wooden skewers, rubber bands, and a small stuffed toy rabbit. A cute story that went along with all of this escapes me, but overall the object of the game was to use the materials to raise the rabbit as high off of the table as possible. As a test of strength, the structures were required to withstand an earthquake, which was to be simulated by dropping a phone book on the table next to the structures. There would be three rounds of play, and the team with the highest rabbit at the end of each won the round.

Kent assigned the teams to private rooms with no windows and started the clock on round one. My team struggled a bit in the beginning but then seemed to find its collaborative groove. We built a platform out of the blocks, fastened the skewers to the top of the platform using the rubber bands, and then mounted ...