Differences in Team Performance by Decision-Making Structure

Two teams were sent to a deserted island. Team A did whatever each person felt was necessary. No leader was created to give instructions. This team was self-sufficient in food and was able to build a hut. Team B needed a consensus of the entire group for action. They never reached consensus and ate all the food.

Precautionary statement ahead of time

• I don’t think it’s appropriate to attribute this episode to gender differences.
• I’ve seen many times both men and women engage in both patterns of activity.
• To begin with, this case is a TV show for entertainment purposes and is cut out to be an interesting and memorable story.

I think it’s interesting to look at it from the perspective of “the difference in team performance depending on the decision-making mechanism.”

• Team A, where each individual takes the action they feel is necessary on their own.

  • Do whatever you feel is necessary.

  • There was no leader giving orders.

    • No attempt to reach consensus.
    • Teamwork arising from stand-up play.
      • [If it’s a good idea, don’t ask permission.
• Team B thought consensus was needed in advance.

  • Without consensus of the entire group, nothing could be done.

  • Not once was there a consensus reached.

  • We’ve gotten into a situation where we can’t act without prior permission from the monster called Consensus.
• Personally, I think the Tuckman model storming that occurred early on in each team decided which way they would converge.
  • So I’d like to observe the specific interactions in that phase, but I can’t because it’s not online (and it’s in Dutch).
• The lesson to be learned is that “introducing a few movers to a place that has fallen on the side of the immobile will only overwork those people.”

translated What happens when you live on a desert island with only women for survival: []](https://anond.hatelabo.jp/20150324232028)

• Years ago, my feminist roommate and I had an interesting experience watching the Dutch version of “Survivor”. The show was about two islands, one with a women-only team and one with a men-only team, and they each had to survive on their own. My feminist roommate had been blabbing about this show to me and other students for weeks. According to her, “This show will show you what a society governed by women, free from the evils of patriarchy, looks like.

• And so it began. Oh, the show showed it.

• The program was that both groups were first dropped off on their respective islands, given some food and equipment, and then asked to survive on their own. Both groups argued about how to structure their teams first. Then the men decided to do whatever they felt was necessary. There was no leader there to give orders. If the men felt they needed to hunt, gather, or fish, they did it. Another man got tired of sitting on the sand and started building a bench. Other men built huts. The huts gradually grew larger and larger. Another man cooked every night. Within days, a tidy civilization had developed on the men’s island, and life became a little richer with each passing day.

• The women settled into a routine as well. After hanging clotheslines to dry towels, they began sunbathing and arguing. Unlike the men, the women could do nothing without the consensus of the entire group. And there was never any consensus among the twelve women. During the next few broadcasts, the women ate up all the food they were initially given. They were soaked repeatedly by the storm, eaten by sand fleas, and grew more and more miserable. The men, on the other hand, were very satisfied. There were differences of opinion, of course, but these were gradually resolved.

• It was great to watch this with my feminist roommate. In the beginning she was trying to somehow justify this difference between male and female islands, but her arguments were getting weaker and weaker. Eventually, the program decided to offer a helping hand. Three men were chosen to go to Women’s Island to help the women. In return, the three women were to go to Otokojima. The look on my feminist roommate’s face when she watched this episode was priceless.

• The three chosen men were naturally elated, too, until they arrived at the women’s island and were welcomed by the women.

• “Where’s the cabin?”

• There is no shed.

• “Where’s the food?”

• I ate all of it.

• So the three men ended up working like dogs. Using their tried-and-true skills within the first few weeks, they built a hut and caught fish. They tried to get the women to help them find food, but the women complained and continued to sunbathe.

• The three women who were sent to Otoko Island were filled with joy. They had food and a hut to shelter them from the wind and rain. They had food, a hut to shelter them from the wind and rain, and the men would take good care of them. They also continued to sunbathe.

• This is what patriarchy is all about. My former roommate stopped being a feminist.

The original was one of the comments on an article about why patriarchy is the best social institution in history, which is also reprinted on reddit.

• The original site is closed.
• Reddit: What happens when you drop a bunch of women on an island to fend for themselves?

Source summary of “What happens if you live on a desert island with only women for survival?” - Choroge Diary

• Hi guys, thanks for all the comments and upvotes. I did a bit of googling to try and find the old episodes on youtube. All of the stuff I described above happened in episode 1-3. Unfortunately, only episodes 3+ are on youtube. The highlights are min 8-10 where the men slump at the wreckage of the female island while the women are delighted to be You don’t have to speak Dutch to understand what is going on - body language says everything. Thanks for all the comments and votes of approval. I found this episode on youtube by doing a little googling. It’s from the 2002 episode of Expeditie Robinson (Dutch Survivor). The story I mentioned above is from episodes 1 to 3, but only episode 3 is on YouTube. Episode 3 is the one where a few men are sent to the women’s team and a few women are sent to the men’s team. The highlight is between 8 and 10 minutes when the women are happy on the island with the men’s team while the men are depressed on the island with the women’s team. Even if you don’t understand Dutch, you can tell by the body language what’s going on.)

If you are not familiar with the Survivor program, there are two areas of misunderstanding in the original article.

• While some may mistakenly believe that the goal is to live a life of survival on the island, it is a bit different; the participants’ goal is to be the last one to win the prize money.

  • For example, if the male team mechanic takes the initiative to create a house, the other members of the team could take out actions to show their contribution (and not be ostracized) so that they do not lag behind.

  • On the other hand, if there is a group of women who have no experience in survival, they may decide to sunbathe with the others instead of trying to survive and being a bad influence.

  • This is not about being a man or a woman. It is about what should be done as a game depending on the situation.

  • In any case, the premise is different from simple survival living. I mean, it’s a TV show to begin with. …

• There is a team shuffle in Survivor. It seems more accurate to say that the producers did the team shuffle at the right time for the show to get going, rather than “three men were chosen to go to Women’s Island to help the women.”

  • As someone who has watched several seasons of the American version of Survivor, I still felt that it would be unconvincing to say anything based on a TV show that is directed and scripted.

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