The Leaning Tower of Pasta: Lessons in Team Performance and Creativity From a Core Surgical Training Boot Camp Design Challenge

Abstract

Unity of effort is an important component of strategic leadership and management theory associated with Core Surgical Training (CST) outcome. The aim was to determine the impact of team diversity on task completion: a creative design challenge, during CST Boot camp. Attendees (n = 44) at a single Statutory Education Body's CST Boot camp were stratified into teams related to specialty theme, and set a design challenge as described by Peter Skillman, to build the tallest free-standing tower out of spaghetti (20 pieces), tape (1 m), and string (1 m), with a marshmallow on top in 18 minutes. Primary outcome measure was tower height. Five teams (50%) completed the task with the tallest tower measuring 70 cm (median 51, range 0-70). Median satisfaction with the simulation exercise was 4 (2-5) on a scale of 0 to 5, with 5 corresponding with highest satisfaction. Successful task completion was associated with team surgical specialty (p = 0.032), ethnicity ratio (p = 0.010,), and gender ratio (p = 0.003), respectively. On multivariable analysis, only team gender ratio was independently associated with tower height (Hazard ratio 0.515, 95% confidence interval 0.350-0.759, p = 0.001). Modern leadership theory emphasizes the important dynamic relationship between individual team members, the team, and task completion. General surgery themed teams with a gender mix were most successful in completing the design challenge; whether relative simulation performance predicts strategic organizational skill and career progression will be the next question.