Entrepreneurship Post – Third Week Summary

Art – the Eagles made Tie-Dye shirts this week and enjoyed every moment of it. Overall, this is super fun and creative activity that I totally recommend to everyone, but I should tell those who have not yet experienced it, that it is V-E-R-Y messy and therefore you should prepare accordingly. Here are the Eagles’ products from the past week:

Writer’s Workshop – This week, we read letters written by famous writers to their fans. We tried to think together what was in these specific letters that made the writers answer them, and what the Eagles could put in their letters to get a response letter. After we finished the discussion, each Eagle wrote a first draft of the letter to the chosen hero.

Entrepreneurship Quest – This week, as part of the quest, we made a very special sandwiches factory activity for the Eagles. The idea was to let them experience what a “production line” is and try to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of working with this method. We started with a theoretical discussion, in which we told the Eagles that they own a sandwiches factory, and they received an order of 100 sandwiches from a big and important customer. We asked them how it was best to prepare the sandwiches. Should each worker prepare a certain number of sandwiches from one end to the other, or should each of them be assigned with a specific task in preparing the sandwich and together they would create a sandwiches distribution line? The Eagles’ unequivocal opinion was that the distribution line would be a more effective solution. At this stage we told them that they were going to get into the story and be the sandwich makers: We prepared a menu of sandwiches based on a relatively large number of ingredients, and each of the Eagles, Alden and I ordered four different sandwiches from the menu. So we divided them into two groups and each group had to prepare 12 sandwiches in half an hour. In addition, one of the girls was the judge and was in charge of quality control to ensure that each sandwich contains the ingredients it should contain and that the sandwich looks good and ready to serve. Both groups got five minutes to plan a strategy and none of them chose the “production line” method: They distributed the sandwiches between themselves and each Eagle made some sandwiches from one end to the other. After half an hour, one group finished the preparation of all sandwiches and did well, and the other group got a bit confused and didn’t finish the task. At this point, we took a break and ate lunch together (sandwiches) and analyzed the strategy each group chose and what could be improved in order to achieve better results. In the second part of the activity, we gave the Eagles an identical task: To prepare 12 sandwiches in half an hour, only this time they were all in one group and had to work in a “production line”. We gave them five minutes to make a plan and then they started. This part of the task was quite different: Unlike the first part, where everyone was very motivated to have their sandwiches be as good as possible, here it was very quickly felt that they were part of a production line. They worked slowly, they did not care much about the final product, those who finished did not bother to help those who had more work, and in general, they were less emotionally involved in the task. At the end of this part, we did another discussion and asked them again what was best in their opinion, production line work or individual work, and everyone changed their minds and said that the production line is the less preferred option. Overall, it was a very successful activity, and in my opinion, it can be adopted without any connection to the entrepreneurship quest, because it is quite self-sufficient.

Next week, I’ll be alone in the studio for three days. Good luck to me, as they say!