Navrang cube, as the name suggests, it has total 27 small cubes coloured
with 9 different colours. There are total 9 sets of each colour. Each set
contain 3 small cubes as shown in the figure. Unlike the conventional cubes,
this cube can be dis-assembled completely and can be assembled again as per
objective. Dr. Mandi asked us to assemble Navrang cube in such a way that each
face will contain all the 9 colours. As the cube could be manually
disassembled, initially we thought of it as a very simple task. But, to our
surprise it turned out to be a very difficult task. Then, Dr. Mandi showed us a
structured way to solve the cube.
The first challenge was for two of us to volunteer and solve the cube -
put it back into place with the given set of constraints -
1. Each face of the cube must have all the 9 colors. Which also means
obviously that none of the colors can be repeated on any face - since there are
only 9 slots in each.
2. We only had limited time in which to solve the cube in.Since our
professor had 2 sets of the navrang in possession, he invited
two groups of two students each to come to his desk and try their luck. The 27
smaller cubes were clustered randomly on the table, and it took the teams more
than a minute to even segregate and arrange the smaller cubes in some order.
Neither of them came close.
And then Prof. Prasad took over.
Management Lessons:
Attempt by Student (First time)
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Attempt by Professor
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A Trial Attempt without preparation
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A planned attempt with early preparation
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Random Format
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Structured Format
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Confusions, Uncertain, stressed,
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Calm, Simple and Clear flow of ideas
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Unrealistic goals set based on excitement
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Realistic goals based on experience
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Not done even upto 10 Mins
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Done within 4 Minutes
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- Each Problem can be solved by systematic thinking
- Each Block represents an entity (Labor, Machine etc.) in an organization and is to be assembled in a structured and hierarchical way like the above process, so efficiency is maximum
- Two blocks of the same color may represent people who don't gel well with each other. And hence while forming a team, a structured approach is necessary
