Kid Nation - a new Wednesday night CBS reality series about 40 kids ages 8 to 14 set in an abandoned old west town and their efforts to build a society free from adult influence has raised some eyebrows.
I'm posting on the Thursday after the second episode but this post is about the first episode.
Articles and points of view abound....
Already, editorials condemning CBS have appeared in The Baltimore Sun, New York Daily News and The Boston Globe, which urged viewers to boycott the show and “reestablish the line between entertainment and exploitation.”
This Blog Sits at the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics
This is a measure of the desperation and panic induced in the old media by the new. Sending children into the brink. I mean, really. Even for a network executive, this is low.
The show, according to Nielsen, won its 8 p.m. time slot among viewers aged 2-11 and 18-49 and attracted 9.4 million viewers overall. Even if this may not be the most spectacular premiere ever, it's far from being a ratings bomb. If CBS can spread the word that "Kid Nation" is a classroom hit, it may persuade even more former critics of "Kid Nation" to watch -- and inspire a different kind of education along the way.
The Wall Street Journal Online
But the hubbub might stem as much from the show’s repudiation of the notion that children need their parents around them all the time to survive, says Times James Poniewozik.
I have to admit - after reading these articles I couldn't wait to exercise my voyeuristic muscles and see what was up. I couldn't watch when it premiered but with the magic of DVR I did watch it a few days later. You can watch the first episode online here. What ever your moralistic bent - there were some things that made you go ...hmmmmm.
My Thoughts...
Even after reading the posts and before I watched the show the idea was intriguing. I guess I'm heartless, but I thought that the kids would love it and that the "adults" running the production would put in place the necessary safeguards to ensure no real harm came to the children. I may be more trusting than the average bear. I thought this would be a great organizational experiment to see how children - before they are really understand the political and organizational rules associated with getting work done - would react and deal with arguably the same types of things we deal with in our work lives every day. I was hoping to learn something.
And I did...
First Impressions...
It was interesting to see how quickly the children assessed effort and contribution.
It probably occurred within the first 2 minutes of being tasked with their first challenge (in TV time - who knows how long the lag was before the footage was edited). Implications in our own work environment would be that we establish our opinions of others very quickly - that first meeting with the team is very important.
Self-Organization and Membership Allegiance
I didn't like how quickly the show's Producers introduced the
concept of "teams" and segmented the 40 children into four groups of 10
denoted by individual colors (yellow, green, blue, red.) I thought
that created an artificial starting point for the children. I would
have wanted to see how they organized themselves. They did allow the
appointed leaders to establish who was on which team. I thought it was
extremely interesting how quickly the older members of the teams began
to establish themselves (Blue Team 14 year-olds chalking "Blue Rules"
on signs around the town.) The fact that it was the older boys marking
their territory has some deep anthropological implications I'm sure.
But it did demonstrate the need for people to belong to something -
whether artificially induced or not - and the fact that the goals of
the subgroups almost immediately took precedence over the needs of the
larger group. Some real day-to-day information for us working stiffs -
how to connect immediate social groups to the organization at large.
Strengths Drive Performance
Go with your strengths. I thought it was really interesting that before the teams were assigned people gravitated to what they did best. The most striking example was Sophia who took over the cooking - and couldn't let go even after her team was assigned through a challenge to other work. People will let you know what they are good at if we listen!
Remember the Good and The Bad
Kids are inherently fair-minded. One of the "secrets" in the first
episode was that the appointed leaders were tasked with awarding a
"gold star" to the person who contributed the most within the first
days. Along with that act of recognition and the symbol (gold star)
came a prize of $20,000. The award was given out during their first "town meeting." The first person to earn the award (notice I
didn't say win) was Sophia who minutes before earning it - gave the
leaders a bit of a smack-down on their ability to lead. Remember, only
the leaders knew of the award. The leaders conferred and awarded the
gold star to the very girl who had minutes before told them they
weren't doing a very good job leading. The look on her face is
priceless. I thought to myself while watching this that there was no
way they would award her the star. I am happy to be wrong. It goes to show that in our own work-a-day lives that sometimes the one that gives us a lot of grief is still worthy of recognition. It will be
interesting to watch how the others behave in the future now that
everyone knows about the star and the $20,000.
Side note... it was also interesting to see how the other children reacted to the award - more focusing on the item than the money. The money was still discussed but the real focus was on the solid gold star. Let's not forget the importance of having a tangible item represent the effort.
Bravery and Knowing Your Limits
At each town meeting they give the kids the option to leave.
Two kids during the episode expressed a desire to go home. One of the children was the youngest appointed leader. The other was the youngest of the entire 40 child group - 8 years old. At the town meeting the leader who was leaning toward going home changed her mind. The other child however, raised his hand to leave. Even after some encouragement from the others to stay, he still took the opportunity to go home. Brave - and smart. Sometimes we all need to assess if we're in the right place at the right time and make a tough decision - even in the face of conflicting inputs. Standing ovation for this little hero.
I'm truly looking forward to the series - and you can bet I'll be watching for those things that can influence our own work place and how we manage our organizations.
A
Marketing and Incentive Design Consultancy
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