Compute Your Individual Score and Compare It to Your Group Score

 

Individual Score Column Group Score Column

Step 1

Subtract your Individual ranking of each item from the approved solution given by your instructor.  Write the answer on each line below.  Treat all results as positive numbers.
 

   Step 3

Subtract your Country Team's ranking of each item from the approved solution given by your instructor.  Write the answer on each line below.  Treat all results as positive numbers.
  - Box of matches -  
  - Food concentrate -  
  - 50 feet of nylon rope -  
  - Parachute silk -  
  - Portable heating unit -  
  - Two .45 caliber pistols -  
  - One box dehydrated milk -  
  - Two 100 lb. tanks of oxygen -  
  - Stellar map (of moon's constellation) -  
  - Life raft -  
  - Magnetic compass -  
  - 5 gallons of water -  
  - Signal flares -  
  - First aid kit containing injection needles -  
  - Solar-powered FM receiver-transmitter -  
Step 2

Add together all of the residual numbers you computed in this column and write the resulting total in the green square below.

Your Individual score is:

 _________________
(your name)

 

 Step 4

Add together all of the residual numbers you computed in this column and write the resulting total in the green square below.

Your Team score is:

 
 

 

 _________________
(your team's name)		  

When everyone has reported his or her Individual Score, and when the teams have reported their Group Scores to the instructor, the instructor will debrief the exercise.
 


Analysis of Your Role in Group Problem Solving

In the green rectangles below, write down what you discovered about your individual problem-solving ability in relation to your group problem-solving ability.  Begin by answering # 1 and #2, and then answering either questions #3-6 or #7-10.
 

1.
Did the group achieve a better result than you did?
 		  
2.
How often did individuals within your group exceed the performance of the group?
 		  
  If the group outperformed you, answer questions #3 through #6.   
3.
What methods did the group bring into play which were not available to you as individuals?
 		  
4.
Did you and your team attack the problem from both ends, saving time by prioritizing from the number 15- downward as well as 1- upward?
 		  
5.
Were you and your team seemingly slow, logical, deliberative, or less haphazard in arriving at your results?
 		  
6.
Could you and your team tolerate the ambiguity of dissent?

 

  
  If you outperformed the group, answer questions #7 through #10.   
7.
Since you obviously knew more than your partners, why were you unable to persuade them of the effectiveness of your position during that period of time in which you were to follow the rules for achieving consensus?
 		  
8.
Do you need to be more assertive within your group? 
 		  
9.
Are you either unsure of your answers, or uncertain about the level of tolerance for divergent ideas within your group?
 		  
10.
What does it take to get you to become the more effective participant when you think you have the right answer?		  

 

  

Conclusion to the NASA Group Problem-solving Exercise

A.  You can forge stronger teams in the future  by sharing (discussing) your answers above with those class members who answered differently from you. 
B.  Since class members will be/or have already formed country-cultural briefing teams, you should put this newly discovered knowledge to work immediately. 
C.  It will work to your advantage in this class to form high-functioning  briefing teams. 
D.  What you learn to apply in the classroom will also help you to become a high-functioning team member in business and industry in the 21st century.