Chapter 5 Section 4: Identify opportunities from problems (1)

As Sunday approached, I suddenly became a little anxious.Is this task too difficult?Will the students give up halfway?I was almost ready for failure. Each of the seven teams chose a different measure of value.One group decided to use paper clips as a new "currency" and scoured for as many paper clips as possible.Another group learned that the longest chain of paper clips in the world so far is over 22 miles, so they decided to break the world record.They mobilized all their friends, roommates, scoured the local store, and eventually got a bunch of paper clips into the classroom and connected them one by one.They failed to break the world record until the task time ran out. Although they failed to achieve the scheduled goal, the efforts of this group for the project are worthy of recognition.

Find opportunities in problems Next came the most entertaining and provocative group, who recorded a video with the song "Bad Boys" in the background, in which they used a paper clip to pick the lock, enter the room, and steal tens of thousands of dollars. Sunglasses, mobile phones, computers, etc.Just when I almost passed out, they told everyone it was just a joke, and then showed another video.In fact, this paragraph is their real action record.They exchanged these 10 paper clips for a poster board with the words "Sell Stanford University Students, Buy One Get Two Free", and ran to the bustling area of ​​the nearby shopping center to set up a booth and started selling.Unexpectedly, the business was so good that they were surprised.They started by carrying heavy shopping bags for customers, then they were hired to help carry garbage in clothing stores, and finally they held a special creative seminar to solve a business problem for a woman. The lady gave them three unused computer monitors as payment.

I've been giving students something similar, but each time the starter material is slightly different, be it a paper clip, a post-it note, or a rubber band or a water bottle.Each time they made full use of these limited time and resources and achieved results that surprised us both.For example, a group of students used a small box of sticky notes to complete a series of activities such as co-creating music, popularizing heart disease knowledge, and publicizing energy conservation and environmental protection. This action finally evolved into the now famous "Innovation Tournament" (Innovation Tournament) , Attracting people from many countries to participate.Competitors see each competition as an opportunity to re-examine the world around them and seize the moment.They dared to challenge traditional concepts and created huge value with almost nothing.What's more, the race that started on sticky notes was made into a movie, and later became the basis material for the professional documentary "Imagine It."