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Well, duh, it's feedback!
Posted by Bill Braun on 7/9/2010
In Reply To:Well, duh, it's feedback! Posted by Tim Joy on 7/1/2010
Activity #1
Create a space about 15 feet in length. Place a piece of paper on the floor. Mark a spot 15 feet away. Mark off every three feet with tape.
The goal is to reach the piece of paper as fast as they can AND their last step before landing on the paper must be no longer than the length of their shoe. Precisely.
Repeat two or three times with one or two other people.
Debrief
1. Ask all the other students to describe, in general terms what they observed (which should be that each student progressively slows down in anticipation of having to make the last step precisely the length of their shoe).
2. Why do they think people slowed down as they approached the paper on the floor?
3. What decision making was happening?
Repeat the exercise, this time assigning one or more students to observe each three foot mark. Distribute graph paper with the X axis marked every three feet, min of zero, max of 15 feet, and the Y axis marked, top to bottom, something like "Dead Run", "Trot", "Walk", "Heel to Toe", or what ever descriptions of speed you want. Each group is to place a mark on their graph to correspond to the speed at which the person is traveling toward the paper at the time they pass the mark they are observing.
Have a graph labeled the same, but larger, on the wall. Ask each member of each observing team to place a mark on the wall graph that corresponds to the mark they made on their graph. Encourage precision without making them worry about it.
At each three foot mark on the X axis either select a mark of "central tendency" or add one, in other words, a dot in the middle of all the other dots. Connect the selected dots. You should see a BOT that looks like exponential decay.
Debrief
1. Why is the graph they way it is?
2. Why did speed change as the student approached the goal?
3. Ask any student who did the exercise to describe their decision making process as they approached the piece of paper.
4. Did different students slow down at different points (rush right up to the last step, put on the brakes, make the last step; progressively slow down; slow down well away from the paper and cautiously approach)? If so, how do we understand variability and how feedback is processed?
Create a simple exponential decay model (energy expended as one approached the piece of paper) and talk about how it's generic behavior approximates decision making and planning in real life. Create a goal seeking model with a constant goal, discuss how the two models are the same, how they are different.
Activity #2
Ask about 10 - 12 students to form a group, standing up, each person at least an out-stretched arm's length from any other person. Ask each person to pick out two people, one relatively close by, and one relatively far away. When you say "Start" they are to position themselves so they are equidistant from both people. Let them seek equidistance for about two to three minutes.
Debrief
1. Describe the experience.
2. What did you see/observe?
3. What did you feel?
4. What was your plan?
5. Describe your ability to reach your goal.
6. What changes did you make along the way?
7. Did the group spread out, stay the same (in distance from each other), or contract into a tighter configuration? Why?
8. Does anyone think the group would ever have come to rest?
Repeat the exercise, this time, breaking it up into three phases.
1. At "Prepare" each person is to pause to reflect on how they are making their decision on their plan to put themselves equidistant to the two people they selected.
2. At "Start", when they start moving, they are to observe the consequences of their plan and adjustments they make.
3. After 10 seconds, call "Pause"
Debrief after each "Pause"
a. What was the difference between your plan and your action? (For example, with everyone standing still, each person likely picked a spot that was equidistant between the two people, and their decision/plan was to walk in a straight line to that spot. Where in fact did they walk, and why did their path change.
b. What was happening? Why did your action differ from your plan?
c. What plan would result in everyone being equidistant from everyone else in the least amount of time?
5. Repeat two or three times (Prepare, Start, Pause [Stop for the last round])
The entire conversation will be about feedback.
In the following days, expand the conversation to decisions in daily living. What was their plan, how did they start, what adjustments did they make, why did they do what they did?
Create a simple goal seeking model in which the goal changes every X time units, along the lines of:
init state_of_the_system = 100
flow state_of_the_system = +dt*change
aux change = gap/time_to_adjust
aux gap = goal-state_of_the_system
aux goal = 100+INT(NORMAL(20,20))
const time_to_adjust = 5
Play with the model to illustrate how goal seeking behavior is constantly responding to changes in goal (which is what they were really doing when they made adjustments to place themselves equidistant from both students they selected).
Bill Braun
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