Take this survey

[Gauracandra]

Take this short survey and record your answers. Afterwards I’ll explain the context of what this survey is and how it came about.

 

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

 

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

 

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference, all the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend?

 

4. There is a river you must cross. But it is inhabited by crocodiles. How do you manage it?

 

[Gauracandra]

This was a test developed by Anderson Consulting. They gave this test to top level executives around the country. Their findings were that 90% of the executives could not answer a single one of these questions. They gave the same test to kindergarten kids and most got two or three right. The idea is that we often overcomplicate simple problems. Due to our conditioning we can’t see outside the box. Thus simple children can solve simple problems, but complex adults have difficulty with these same simple problems. Here are the answers to the test:

 

 

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

 

Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe and close the door. This question was designed to test whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

 

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

 

Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This question was designed to test your ability to think through the repercussions of your actions.

 

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference, all the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend?

 

The Elephant. The Elephant is in the refrigerator. This tests your memory.

 

4. There is a river you must cross. But it is inhabited by crocodiles. How do you manage it?

 

You swim across. All the Crocodiles are attending the Animal conference! This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

 

 

[Maitreya]

So it appears my hiring a helicopter to fly me across was unnecessary?

 

I did better the second time I took the test.Scored %50.

[shvu]

 

I went through this exercise just a month ago. So I scored 100% this time

 

Cheers

[Maitreya]

Oh shvu, you are just showing off.

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

I hope I'm not the only one who thinks these consultants are loons, I mean really loony loons. First of all the questions are not linked at all. For example:

 

2) How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

 

No where does it say you did it, or you will do it. It just asks how. So when you come to the third question, the expected "answer" is pretty stupid.

 

The simplicity of putting an elephant into a fridge may impress some consultants, but to me it is a sign they are just stupid. For example, I can ask you "How do you go to the moon." A real simple answer is, "You walk to the moon."

 

Yes, a pretty simple answer; but completely wrong.

 

To think that executives are actually measured based on the wrong answers they are supposed to give is kind of sad. But anyway, the executive world is completely insecure. Everyone is constantly looking for the secret key to success, always doubting them selves. It's almost as if someone moved their cheese!

 

Anyway, better not to get into that topic. We don't want to expose the stupidity and shallowness of corporate America. Better to just keep saying that everything is "super-excellent", or what ever the catch word is now.

 

[Maitreya]

And these guys make big $ for this.Amazing. Its like why work when you can be a consultant and play games like these.

[amanpeter]

I never got past "groovy", fact I didn't get quite that far, either. Hung-up somewhere between "cool" and "hip", I think.

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

I think the word I was looking for was "super-fantastic".

[atma]

I think JNDas is upset because he didn't get any answer right.