I am a chocoholic, so I really appreciate learning activities that involve M&M’s. An earlier article focused on an activity that uses M&M’s to enable participants to experience the consequences of different leadership decision-making styles. This article focuses on an activity that uses M&M’s to experience the process and impact of a work audit.
This particular activity was designed by Susan Schilz of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. It demonstrates how audits work and makes the idea of an audit less scary. Among other applications, the activity can also be used to simply practice finding percentages.
A Color Inventory of a One Pound Bag of M&M’s
The goal of this activity is to determine whether M&M’s candies is meeting their own color percentage expectations.
Note that the facilitator will need to have a computer spreadsheet as well as a table that indicates M&M’s candies’ color percentage expectations.
The facilitator should also come prepared to give each small group:
- a 1-pound bag of chocolate M&M’s;
- a large paper plate (on which to dump out the bag of candy);
- six paper plates (for sorting each of the 6 different colors of M&M’s);
- enough disposable Latex gloves for each group member; and
- a tally sheet.
The small groups are given approximately 5 minutes to separate the candy by color. Then they have to determine the total number of each color.
Guideliness for Counting the M&M’s
Before the groups begin, they are advised that:
- The M&M’s should be retained in their packaging until the audit officially begins, to ensure audit integrity.
- The groups should count quickly.
- Members of the groups should NOT eat any of the candy so that the count is true and accurate. They are to resist all temptations to sample.
- A partial M&M should be counted as “.5.”
Counting the M&M’s
First, a group completes counting all of the colors in the bag. Next, one of the group members enters the final counts on a tally sheet. Finally, this individual brings the tally sheet to the facilitator, who enters the totals into a computer spreadsheet,
The computer spreadsheet will automatically add the totals together to get the total number of M&M’s per bag.
The percentage of the color per bag will then be calculated automatically and be displayed in a table.
Audit Percentages Compared to M&M’s Color Expectations
Finally, the groups’ audit percentages will be compared to M&M’s published percentage expectations for each color, which are as follows: brown (30%), yellow (20%), red (20%), blue (10%), orange (10%), and green (10%).
- If there is little to no change (0-5), the accuracy rate will be considered to be in the 100-90% range.
- If there is a discrepancy of 6-9, the accuracy rate will be considered to be in the 89- 85% range.
- If there is a discrepancy of 10 or more, the accuracy rate will (literally) fall into the 84-0% range.
The final audit results will then be projected on a screen, so all participants can view them.
Participants tend to enjoy this activity, not the least because they get to keep their sorted M&M’s!
Facilitators may note that some groups will keep the different colors in their separate plates, while other groups will dump all of the colors together on the large plate.
If a group has a creative bent, the members may keep the colors separated but place them in an artistic arrangement on one large plate.
When time permits, it might be fun to discuss the possible significance of these differences.
Should you like to learn how to create and facilitate experiential learning activities, please book a call to discuss a tailored train-the-trainer program. https://laurelandassociates.com/contact/
May your learning be sweet.
Deborah