Lessons from the Monster Garage (Part 2)

 

Monster Garage, the Discovery Channel's popular reality show, takes skilled machinists and automobile enthusiasts and challenges them to take an ordinary vehicles and transform it into a "monster." Every episode of Monster Garage gives us a glimpse of how teams succeed or fail at achieving incredible feats in short amounts of time. Learning from these efforts can give you some ideas on how to get your team to overcome its monsters. In the conclusion of our series, we wrap up our look at this intense week-long project.

Day 4: Testing the Team

By Day 4, the team should be able to test the basic parts of the car that will work. Any moving transformations, changes in the body or parts that must move should be tested on this day. This is the day when the work from the previous two days is evaluated to see where problems may lie.

Done right, Day 4 is a chance for the team to check itself and its designs. If the basic ideas such as hydraulics, lifts or wires work soundly, then the rest of the car should come together.

However, if there are problems, Day 4 can be a day of reckoning for the team. When problems do occur, some team members may begin to exert their will over the group. Ideas become posturings, and each person tries to solve the problem. Collaboration and respect are key here.

The people brought into Monster Garage are often strong-willed, blue-collar …

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