No use crying over broken eggs...

Okay, so I know the saying usually applies to milk, but hey! They're both in the dairy isle of the grocery store, right? I think it counts.

In our class project, " An Eggs-cellent Way to Play", the class was assigned to plan, design, and create a devise that would protect an egg from breaking in case of a fall. My group failed this group project but it wasn't all bad. With the bad, there was also some good, and the bad is always there to teach us a lesson for the future. Here are the pros and cons of our strategic planning:

Step 1: The goals and objectives in our project were clear: design a contraption that would protect the egg in the case of a fall. We understood that at least fifty percent of the egg must be visible and what resources and the amounts that would be given to us. However, there were a lot of things we weren't clear in while planning, such as "HOW MUCH is fifty percent?" and "Are there any UNFAIR designs?"

Step 2: As for determining our resources and current project status, we knew what our resources were, eight jumbo straws and two feet of tape. Nevertheless, I don't think this was enough to plan a good design for the device. We didn't know how strong the material of the straws were, which affected how it would bend. We didn't know how long they were exactly, which affected our decision in whether to cut them up or not in order to make more pieces and how long the pieces should be. We knew how big the egg was and we figured the shortest person should drop it because it would mean a shorter fall. I guess it is also inevitable that a group leader would stand out, but we seemed to have two group leader, or more of a president/vice-president sort of thing. This leader thing sort of just happened, and because nobody else spoke up, their voices were barely heard.

Step 3: When one's voice is barely heard, it also means your input will most likely not count. Our team leaders decided on a plan and because they were so sure that it would work, there was no use refuting it. Some attempted but they were shy and their voices were overshadowed. I tried to make an input and it seemed like it was considered for a few seconds, but the time limit seemed to pressure everybody to get one solid plan and get it done with. We certainly didn't explore different options and designs, and perhaps if everyone's opinion had been considered, we could've came up with a mix of all ideas and integrated it into one solid idea. But as I previously mentioned, time puts pressure on people (besides, it was worth five extra points on our exam if we succeeded!)

Step 4: Since we didn't have "alternatives", we just ran with the one design that was decided on. As soon as we were given our resources, our plan changed slightly. There was a little bit of panicking because some of us became unsure of how much tape we would use. Some thought it wasn't enough tape, others thought it was enough. We decided to cut our straws and forgot pieces when they started falling off the desk and forgot, which resulted in a different device at first. We later found the missing pieces but it was no longer the same device we had originally designed. There was one person assigned to design and draw the device out, and later I noticed that it slightly resembled what we had designed, but it wasn't exactly what I had pictured. There was too much tape, inefficient placement of straw pieces, some improvisation as to how the rest of the egg would be covered, and by the end I was afraid we had covered more than fifty percent of the egg. Everyone was looking so confident that I thought maybe I was being the paranoid one so I let it go. When it was our turn to drop the egg, we failed. Our plan was not idiot-proof.

Looking back at it, there were many things we should've done that we failed to do. We should've planned different alternatives in case our vision changed once we had received our resources. We should've had more input from everyone and others' opinions should've been considered. We also should've taken longer to decide on a plan, the best ideas come later in the planning process. We should've asked if some ideas would've been unfair (the majority of the people complained about the winning group because their device didn't seem fair but it did indeed play by the rules). However, this will only serve to remind us on our next planning project on the steps should be taken in order to create a successful plan in the future. Thank goodness this time it was only an egg.