collaboration
DESCRIPTION
AND ITS POWER TO SUPPORT THE PROCESS OF INNOVATIONTRANSCRIPT
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A DESIGN THESIS
AND ITS POWER TO SUPPORT THE PROCESS OF INNOVATION
Collaboration
LEIGH COHENINDUSTRIAL_INTERACTION DESIGN
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITYID2010
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Collaboration: AND ITS POWER TO SUPPORT THE PROCESS OF INNOVATION
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This thesis is respectfully submitted by Leigh Cohen to the faculty of Syracuse University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Industrial Design (BID).
________________________________Leigh Cohen
________________________________Cas Holman
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CONTENTS:
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INTRODUCTION:9_What is collaboration?
10_Why do we find it hard to collaborate? 22_Where does our fear lead us?
24_Break free from our fears and open our minds
FORMULA: 28_Formulating a recipe for collaborative success
PEOPLE:35_The right people, the right attitude
36_“Getting to know you, getting to know all about you.”38_Make sure you have some glue
47_Why power hungry people are not friends of collaboration
PROCESS: 52_It’s more than just teamwork
54_Follow the yellow brick road to innovation60_Why designers have a head start
64_Learn to think like a designer
TOOLS:70_The power of the Post-it
72_The fight for team rooms and their untapped potential
CONCLUSION:78_The bigger picture of collaboration
82_References84_Photo References
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Introduction:
9
WHAT IS COLLABORATION?
Collaboration is a means to bring people
together to solve complex problems and
find innovative solutions. It is the process by
which we look to real world situations and
human centered design strategies, to find
“out of the box” ideas that will exceed the
needs of the problems that we face. Most
importantly, it is about communicating ef-
fectively, knowing how to work together
to play upon people’s strengths, and build
upon each other’s ideas. It is not about at-
tacking ideas and labeling them as wrong.
It is about opening our minds and seeing
the potential for a solution.
To collaborate effectively, one should
have fun, be fearless, and not be afraid to
ask for help.
Introduction
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WHY DO WE FIND IT HARD TO COLLABORATE?
Growing up I was taught three things that I
believe hinder a person’s ability to collabo-
rate and innovate. First, others taught me
that creativity and imagination were gifts
that not all of us possess. Fortunately for
me, my parents taught me quite the oppo-
site. From an early age they told me that
I could achieve my dreams, and that they
would be there along the way to support
me in my efforts. Not everyone is taught this
same lesson or given that opportunity. How
often have I heard people say, “Oh, you’re
so creative. I would have never been able
to think of that… You have a gift.” But what
people forget is, as small children we do
not know any better; we all have that same
“gift.” It is the gift of creativity and unstop-
pable imagination. For many, it is lost when
we enter school and start caring about
what other’s think about us. We become
Introduction
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afraid to voice our ideas for fear of peer re-
jection. We want to fit in, so we start by not
standing out.
In A Whole New Mind, author Daniel H.
Pink (2006) tells a story that has become
folklore among designers. It is the story of
Gordon MacKenzie, a former longtime cre-
ative at Hallmark Cards, who often visited
schools to talk about his career. While in
the class rooms he would always make it
a point to ask, “How many artists are there
in the room? Would you please raise your
hands?” What he would soon notice was a
pattern among the answers. In the kinder-
garten and first-grade classroom, every stu-
dent would wave their hand high. As the
students started getting older and caring
more and more about what others thought
of them, there were fewer and fewer hands
in the air. By the time the students reached
the sixth grade, not a single hand would
Introduction
12
raise because students had come to be-
lieve that they no longer had what it takes
to be creative. It is from this example that
we see the power of peer influence, the
desire people have to fit in, and how that
can affect collaboration (pp. 68-69).
The second reason we have difficulty
collaborating, is that we start believing
we are not good at something unless we
are the best. Many people get frustrated
and give up on things when they feel that
they are not the absolute best at it. I be-
lieve that the frustration lies within the fear
of inadequacy. In a collaborative setting,
when people feel inadequate, they have
a hard time voicing their ideas and opin-
ions for fear that other will ridicule them.
This is a fear that I still struggle with today. I
remember when I was a child, it took me
longer then most of my peers to learn how
to read. I particularly remember first grade.
Introduction
13
During the assigned reading period my first
grade teacher split us up into three differ-
ent reading groups based on ability. There
was the advanced group, which was al-
ready reading chapter books, the interme-
diate group that was reading at the proper
first grade level, and then there was my
group, who was still working on the basics
and fundamentals of reading. To this day I
can remember what it felt like to be in the
bottom reading group. I remember hating
and even giving up on reading because I
knew I was not good at it. I remember feel-
ing judged, especially when the advanced
group was given the task of “teaching” the
beginning group how to read. This fear of
reading followed me throughout my edu-
cation. It took me a long time to discover
the power of the written word and it took
me even longer to develop a love for it.
Still, to this day I have this bizarre fear of
Introduction
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reading out loud in public. I know that my
fear in not based on my ability, but can be
traced back to the fears that I developed
for reading in the first grade. With this fear
of not being the best, people often give up
on collaboration before it even begins.
Last but not least, we have been taught
that our ideas must be our own, and we
must not share them with others for fear
that they will steal them. This is the barrier
that is so ingrained in us that it becomes the
hardest to break. To effectively collaborate
we must be open to sharing our ideas so
others can build upon them. It is this shar-
ing and building process that makes for
great collaboration. However, it is also this
process that makes collaboration feel like
a form of cheating, creating a negative
feeling among people as to who takes the
credit for the concept. Is it the person who
had the original idea, or is it the person or
Introduction
15
group that added to the idea and took it
from good to great?
We need to get past theses fears and
realize that through collaboration it is every-
one’s win when something new and excit-
ing is discovered.
Fear.
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WE WANT TO FIT IN,
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SO WE START BY NOT STANDING OUT.
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WE BELIEVE WE ARE NOT GOOD AT SOMETHING,
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UNLESS WE ARE THE BEST.
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WE MUST NOT SHARE IDEAS WITH OTHERS,
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FOR FEAR THAT THEY WILL STEAL THEM.
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WHERE DOES OUR FEAR LEAD US?
As Marty Neumeier (2008) puts it in his book,
The Designful Company, our fears lead us
to a “Lone Genius” approach to creativity
and innovation. We often leave the cre-
ativity to the people who know what they
are doing. This idea is best exemplified
by the great architect Frank Lloyd Wright,
“who tends to regard [his] peers not as col-
laborators, but as competitors” (p. 104). But
what we have to remember is that it takes
more then just one man to build a house. It
takes a team of people, from engineers to
contractors, plumbers to electricians, and
without one another the impossible would
not be possible. Again Neumeier (2008)
said it best when he wrote, “the closer you
look at the history of design, the more you
see that the lone genius is more myth than
fact” (p. 106).
Introduction
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I mean who would Batman be without Robin...
...or a film crew?
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BREAK FREE FROM OUR FEARS AND OPEN OUR MINDS
It is when we have control of our fears that we
can collaborate effectively. It is about know-
ing that everyone still possesses that creative
spark and unstoppable imagination we had
as children. It is about knowing that even if
we are not the best artists or spellers in the
world: if we can effectively engage an audi-
ence and communicate our ideas, people
will listen. And if we get people to listen, we
can start a collaborative effort to build and
expand upon our ideas. It is about letting go
of our ideas for the greater good. It is about
not being afraid to throw our ideas out there;
no matter how crazy we think they sound.
Because, with the right people, process, and
tools, good ideas can become great ideas,
and that is what leads to innovation.
Introduction
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“Next Stop... Mars!”
Introduction
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Formula:
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FORMULATING A RECIPE FOR
COLLABORATIVE SUCCESS
In a recent design challenge held at Syra-
cuse University, I had a unique opportunity
to observe 36 students with different edu-
cational backgrounds from Cornell Universi-
ty, the University of Rochester and Syracuse
University. In this three-day weekend char-
rette, six student teams with a combination
of six students from each school, worked to-
gether to brainstorm new ways to combat
“Bright Flight,” the growing problem where
university-educated students seek employ-
ment outside the Upstate New York area
after graduation. In combination with CO-
LAB, a collaborative design center located
on the Syracuse University campus, I was
able to study and interact with the students
as they went through a design ideation
process. With the students’ backgrounds
ranging from education to law, business
Formula
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to anthropology, the design process was
something completely new for most of
them.
The day started off with four profession-
als with advanced knowledge of trying
to combat “Bright Flight” or “Brain Drain”
from the Upstate New York region. After
the morning session, the students were then
armed with markers, post-it notes, and a
one-page .pdf that I created to briefly ex-
plain the design ideation process. What I
was most interested in was observing how
they worked together, what process they
chose to follow throughout their brainstorm-
ing secession, and what tools they used to
help them along their way.
With my research, my observational study
and a survey I received from sixty-two top
US executives, I began to see a pattern of
what I believe is the most important parts of
a successful collaboration.
Formula
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Collaboration People
Tools
Process
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People:
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Collaboration People
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EGO
People
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THE RIGHT PEOPLE, THE RIGHT ATTITUDE
Collaboration is not for everyone. A good
collaboration takes practice and an under-
standing of how to best use the skills and
talents of a group to get the greatest re-
sults. As Marty Neumeier (2008) discussed
in The Designful Company, “prima donnas,
classroom bullies, and nervous Nellies need
not apply. Teamwork is an advanced form
of creativity, requiring players who are hum-
ble, generous, and independently minded”
(p. 110). In the collaboration process, it is
vital to draw from multidisciplinary mem-
bers who can each bring something new
and different to the table. It is imperative
for members of the group to check their
egos at the door and open their minds to
new experiences and understandings. But
with different personalities and skill sets, how
does one get everyone to work together?
People
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“GETTING TO KNOW YOU, GETTING TO KNOW ALL
ABOUT YOU.”
When pursuing a successful collaboration
it is important to get to know the people
in the room. For example, within the char-
rette there were six students from the three
schools, placed into six groups. The students
did not know each other. It was essential to
the success of the charrette to find an ac-
tivity where the students could “break the
ice.” I needed to find a way for everyone
in the group to get to know each other and
feel as though they were on an even play-
ing field. After some personal brain storming
and talking with professionals whose job it
is to run leadership development courses,
I came up with an activity that turned out
even better than I had hoped.
After meeting each other for the first time
at dinner, students were given a white sheet
of paper and a marker, and told to visually
People
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“Getting to like you, Getting to hope you like me.”
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map their personal timeline from birth to to-
day, marking the most important and influ-
ential dates in their life so far. It was a way
for the students to get to know each other,
recognizing the similarities and differences
within their lives, and start to see how they
could visually communicate their life story
for their fellow peers. After ten minutes,
each student had two minutes to “elevator
pitch” their life story to the group.
During this process it was extremely inter-
esting to see how the students represented
their lives. Something that surprised me, that
probably should not have, was the way
that each student chose to visually com-
municate the important dates in his or her
life, as it gave me insight into what type of
thinker each was. The law school students
in the room drew perfectly straight lines
mapping their educational and profession-
al achievements with words. Their hopes for
People
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the future laid in financial success. The de-
sign student had an organic, curvy line that
included pictures and text. It showed his
path to becoming a designer and type of
designer he hoped to be in the future. The
urban development major mapped his life
by the locations in which he grew up and
now lived, marking the cities and towns
that influenced him so far. These three ex-
tremes gave hints to their individual thought
processes, but it was not until they worked
together that I could start to understand
their differences.
People
Life.
40 People
41People
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MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SOME GLUE: THE PERSON
OR PERSONS THAT HOLD THE GROUP TOGETHER
Tom Kelly (2005) says in his book The Ten
Faces of Innovation that the collaborator is
“that rare person who truly values the team
over the individual, the project accomplish-
ments beyond individual achievements.
The person willing to set their own work
aside temporarily to help you make a tight
deadline. The person you can count on to
jump in when and where they are needed
most” (p. 114). It is these rare people who
are able to hold a group together, make
sure everyone has a voice, and keeps the
ideas moving forward so that the group
can meet its goals and deadlines. While
not every group has them, without this per-
son, a group is more likely to feel like a dys-
functional family on an unstoppable train
that is leading to disaster.
For the Syracuse design charrette, stu-
People
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This is the glue...
People
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...that holds it all together.
People
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dent facilitators were brought in for just this
purpose. As members of CNY Speaks, a
“non-partisan, non-profit effort that seeks
to spark constructive conversations with
Central New Yorkers about critical issues in
the region,” these Maxwell graduate stu-
dents were trained to maintain the even
playing field. Each facilitator’s job was to
make sure all students had a chance to
share in the conversation and use their skills
within the group (FAQ << CNYSpeaks, n.d.).
They were there to maintain the values of
the team, and help promote the process
to keep the conversation moving forward.
Without these facilitators, the experience
might not have been as positive. It is im-
portant for every collaborative setting to
have someone stepping into the role of col-
laborator because without that person, the
power hungry and controlling would inevi-
tably try and take over.
People
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Power hungry people are mean.
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WHY POWER HUNGRY PEOPLE ARE NOT FRIENDS OF
COLLABORATION
We have all been there, working in a group
setting where one-person does all the talk-
ing, listens only to the sound of their own
voice, and shoots down the ideas of others
even before they have a chance to take
flight. And what if there are two of them?
It is these people that lead to collaboration
disaster. In the fifteen years that Morten T.
Hansen’s (2009) researched his book titled,
Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid The
Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results,
Hansen found that there are four personal
challenges that people have to overcome
in order to collaborate effectively.
People
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Theses Challenges are:
Hunger for power. Leaders who seek power- who want
others to depend on them--- do less well in moving be-
yond their narrow agendas and redefining success as
bigger goals. This makes intuitive sense: giving up part of
one’s agenda to focus on a bigger goal can be felt as
relinquishing power. When leaders have a strong craving
for power they tend to stick to their own narrow agendas.
Furthermore, leaders who crave power are less inclusive:
letting others play a part in the decision making process
can be seen as giving up power.
Arrogance. Arrogant leaders--- those who have an atti-
tude that “I know best” and thinking they are smarter than
others--- do not involve people in their decision-making as
much as others. After all, if I think that I am the smartest
person in the room and know it all, why bother asking less-
er mortals for their opinions? Also, arrogant leaders don’t
seem very good at focusing on bigger goals: “I know best,
so my goal should be the best one” seems to be the train
of thought here.
Defensive Attitude. Defensive leaders have a hard time
taking criticism and believing that problems tend to lie
outside themselves. They are not the ones who stand
up in a room and say, “I am accountable here.” Further-
more, defensiveness is not the best attitude for redefinition
People
Hunger for power. Leaders who seek power- who want
others to depend on them--- do less well in moving
beyond their narrow agendas and redefining success
as bigger goals. This makes intuitive sense: giving up
part of one’s agenda to focus on a bigger goal can be
felt as relinquishing power. When leaders have a strong
craving for power they tend to stick to their own narrow
agendas. Furthermore, leaders who crave power are
less inclusive: letting others play a part in the decision
making process can be seen as giving up power.
Arrogance. Arrogant leaders--- those who have an at-
titude that “I know best” and thinking they are smarter
than others--- do not involve people in their decision-
making as much as others. After all, if I think that I am
the smartest person in the room and know it all, why
bother asking lesser mortals for their opinions? Also,
arrogant leaders don’t seem very good at focusing on
bigger goals: “I know best, so my goal should be the
best one” seems to be the train of thought here.
Defensive Attitude. Defensive leaders have a hard time
taking criticism and believing that problems tend to lie
outside themselves. They are not the ones who stand
up in a room and say, “I am accountable here.” Further-
more, defensiveness is not the best attitude for
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of success: the more defensive a leader is the less that
leader goes beyond narrowing agendas. And the more
defensive attitude leaders have, the less inclusive they
become. They somehow believe that if they open up to
other people, they would be admitting they were wrong.
The reality is different, of course: letting others participate
in the decision-making process is not the same as admit-
ting to ones own shortcomings.
Fear. Fear leads to the tendency to stick to one’s own
narrow agendas rather then focus on bigger goals. When
one’s identity is tied to one’s agendas instead of the
broader goal, defeat becomes personal. The same goes
for inclusiveness: opening up decision making to other
people’s views will prevail, and not their own.
-Collins, pg.160-162
It is these challenges that stop collabora-
tion dead in its tracks. It is up to the individ-
ual to recognize these challenges and ad-
dress them before collaboration can begin.
As a member in a collaborative group, one
must be willing to listen to everyone’s ideas,
add to them, and build from them to cre-
ate something new and innovative.
People
redefinition of success: the more defensive a leader is
the less that leader goes beyond narrowing agendas.
And the more defensive attitude leaders have, the less
inclusive they become. They somehow believe that if
they open up to other people, they would be admitting
they were wrong. The reality is different, of course: let-
ting others participate in the decision-making process is
not the same as admitting to ones own shortcomings.
Fear. Fear leads to the tendency to stick to one’s own
narrow agendas rather then focus on bigger goals.
When one’s identity is tied to one’s agendas instead of
the broader goal, defeat becomes personal. The same
goes for inclusiveness: opening up decision making to
other people’s views will prevail, and not their own.
-Hansen, 2009 pp.160-162
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Process:
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Collaboration
Process
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IT’S MORE THAN JUST TEAMWORK
Thinking back through my education I re-
member the days when I hated group
work. I remember the days when group
members and I would split the work in less
than equal parts, work on it individually,
come back together right before the as-
signments was due, and inevitably one
lucky person (most often me) would get
to do even more work piecing all of it to-
gether and filling in the blank spots for those
who did not complete their portion of the
assignment. To this day this still happens in
classrooms and corporate offices all over
the world. What people need to realize is…
this is not collaboration. This is a poor ex-
cuse for a group tackling a project by de-
fining strict roles and dividing tasks. There is
no advancement of ideas and no process
to take those ideas to the next level. Han-
sen (2009) argues that “collaboration needs
Process
53
to involve people: If all that is going on
is shipping data back and forth between
units, its not collaboration” (p. 15). I com-
pletely agree that when people do not truly
understand the difference between collab-
oration and teamwork, collaboration is met
with a negative reaction. When I surveyed
sixty-two corporate executives and asked
what they disliked most about group work,
fifty-five of them clearly stated that they
disliked when people did not follow through
on their commitments and did not do their
fair share of the work. These are fears that
follow us whenever we are put into a group
setting. The only way to get past these
fears is by learning a collaborative process
where there is no room for those uncertain-
ties to exist.
Breaking work into parts... is not collaboration.
Process
54
FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD TO INNOVATION
There are many paths one can take in the
pursuit of innovation, and they all include
collaboration. Business Model Innovation
is quickly being considered the ultimate
achievement in a new wave of strategic
thinking. “How do you come up with a busi-
ness model that differentiates you and that
creates value for your customers and, by
doing that, puts you in a unique position in
your industry?” (Innovation: The View From
The Top, 2006). Business Model Innovation
is about not only changing the physical
business model of an organization, but it
is about redefining the innovation process
and the company’s day-to-day culture
in the pursuit of innovation. IBM is in the
course of making a strategic change to
the way they achieve their product innova-
tion. They are redefining themselves as well
as their business model to globalize their
Process
55
structure by creating collaborative hubs
around the world that will rebalance their
vast resources. With over 330,000 people
working around the world, it is important
for a company of this size to have a better
understand of all the resources and ideas it
has to offer (Innovation: The View From The
Top, 2006). For IBM, the importance of col-
laboration lies in the importance of what
they can learn from one another.
The second road to innovation is driven
by technology. Research and Develop-
ment companies like Blue Highway, whose
main objective it is to, “create and deliver
innovative, intellectual capital to its cus-
tomers,” is looking for technology to drive
ideas and predict new breakthrough mar-
kets (A. DiRienzo, personal communica-
tion, 2009). While this reliance on technol-
ogy can have undiscovered potential in
new markets, it is also extremely uncertain
Process
56
whether the time and resources invested
in the projects will, in the end, pay off with
economic benefits (Brown 2009, p.20).
Even so, the pursuit of new technologies
continues, and companies like Blue High-
way look for collaboration with outside
parties to make these discoveries. Some of
the many collaborators that Blue Highway
works with today are in government agen-
cies, universities and private labs interested
in diagnostic and healthcare research. All
these collaborators combine their insights
and ideas in the hopes of developing radi-
cal and breakthrough innovations.
Finally there is the road to innovation
that is paved with human centered design
strategies. This innovative methodology is
called DESIGN THINKING, and focuses on
understanding users on multiple levels be-
fore looking to technologies and market
shares to answer users needs. Design is no
Process
57
longer about the “poster and the toaster”
(Neumeier 2008, p.13). The aesthetic and
image based design of the 20th century
has been replaced by 21st century de-
sign thinking that includes processes, sys-
tem and organizational design. Design
has moved into an industry that tackles
big ideas instead of small problems. It is
through everyday design practices that we
can study an effective collaborative pro-
cess, because it is designers who are mas-
ters at interdisciplinary collaboration. We
are the glue that binds specialists together.
It is through the evolution of design that we
have discovered how to effectively com-
municate across a myriad of disciplines.
We are the ultimate facilitators in a world of
communicators.
Follow, Follow Follow, Follow...
Process
58
FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD...
59
TO INNOVATION
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WHY DESIGNERS HAVE A HEAD START
As a designer there is a certain method to
our madness and this most often involves
collaboration. Throughout my design edu-
cation I was never taught a magical step-
by-step process on how to effectively com-
municate or collaborate with my peers.
Instead we learn by doing, and so it was
early in my experiential design education
that I first learned how to collaborate.
It was nearing the end of my first semes-
ter in industrial design when my professor
announced a break from traditional classes
to compete in a “design charrette.” He im-
mediately broke our class into small groups
and gave us our design brief. We quickly
realized that one: we were not going to
get much sleep, and two: the only way to
succeed in the challenge was by working
together as a whole. It was through this first
design charrette that I truly learned what
Process
61
it meant to collaborate. We had less then
three days to define the problem, choose
a solution, and build full scale working
mockups that would help us communicate
our ideas. It was a new and exhilarating
process for me as a student designer, and
to this day I can confidently say that this is
the time when my mind made the switch
from group work hater to collaboration sup-
porter. I saw the power and creativity that
came from having more than one person
tackling the project. I was utterly impressed
by the amount of work we were able to
accomplish in such a short amount of time.
It was because we were able to work col-
lectively towards a common goal that
everything we wanted to accomplish got
accomplished. We met our deadlines with
only seconds to spare, but in the end, we
were able to proudly communicate all the
work we had done. We worked cohesively
Process
62
as a team, sharing and building upon each
other’s ideas, using the power of that unity
to help us succeed.
It is through projects like these that de-
signers are educated on the power of
collaboration. We receive an early un-
derstanding of the way to go about col-
laborating, and over time we learn how
to infuse our own creative process into it in
order to produce innovative results.
“All of us are smarter than any of us.”
-Tim Brown, President & CEO, IDEO
Process
63
Floating food on a water conveyor belt... “Oh the
possibilities”
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LEARN TO THINK LIKE A DESIGNER
In Tim Brown’s book, Change by Design, he
expresses the idea that if everyone in the
world knew how to think like designers, the
world’s biggest questions would have an-
swers. It is a very powerful argument, which
shows the potential for design thinking to
impact the world. Design thinking is about
taking a human centered approach, get-
ting out into the world to find user’s needs
that they themselves do not know exist. It is
about not being afraid to fail and fail often,
and to learn quickly from our mistakes. It
is about knowing when to ask for help and
learning the importance of collaborating
with others so that we can build upon each
other’s ideas. It is about learning how to
communicate and find exciting ways for
us to tell our stories. Most importantly, it is
about having a positive influence on the
world beyond just the “poster and toaster.”
Process
65
In the world of design the potential to un-
lock the answers to questions are endless,
because we do not fear the wrong answer.
We know we are on the path to finding the
right one.
“Design thinking is about looking beyond
the box, past the room, and into the stars to find
innovation.”
Process
-Leigh Cohen, Designer
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Tools:
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Collaboration
Tools
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THE POWER OF THE POST IT
No one could have guessed that a small
piece of paper and weak adhesive would
combine to create a product with its own
cult following. The Post-it note has become
a staple in corporate offices and design
firms around the world. It is used as a way
to visually organize thoughts and ideas
with limitless mobility. It sticks, it un-sticks, it
moves around the wall, and offers the abil-
ity to reformulate ideas and discover un-
locked potential. It is this ability to visually
display information that makes the Post-it
note an amazing tool for collaboration.
Tools have always played an important
role in helping improve and facilitate work.
The same is true for collaboration. Tools as
simple as a pen and paper and as complex
as a networking site online can be used to
facilitate and support successful collabora-
tion. These tools are important to the pro-
Tools
69
cess because they fill the gap left behind
by lack of exposure to collaboration in their
formative academic careers. Not every-
one has been given the opportunity to ex-
perience and cultivate his or her own col-
laborative process while in school, because
schools often promote anti-collaboration.
It is not until they become employees at a
company, that they are asked to effective-
ly collaborate with one another. If no one is
there to coach them on what effective col-
laboration is, how can they be expected to
succeed? With the right tools, the learning
curve can be reduced and the potential
for successful collaboration is greater.
It sticks, it un-sticks, it moves around the
wall...
Tools
70 Tools
71Tools
The power of the Post-it.
72
THE FIGHT FOR TEAM ROOMS AND THE UNTAPPED
POTENTIAL FOR THEIR FUTURE
Space can be another powerful tool for
collaboration. I have often questioned why
students are so drawn to team rooms on
the Syracuse University campus. Students
cannot seem to get enough of them. Lo-
cated in the Whitman School of Business,
students wake up early to push, shove and
literally fight for their spot in a six by eight
foot room. These rooms with their white
walls, four chairs, and standard tables,
feel more like prison cells than collabora-
tive centers, and offer little in the form of
tools for collaboration. The tools that they
do offer, flat screen televisions and white
boards, are not often utilized. It is a quiet
place for student groups to meet and work
on projects. With these rooms in such high
demand, they are seldom available, espe-
cially to non-Whitman students. The lucky
Tools
73
non-Whitman few who are able to inhabit
one of these spaces, must relinquish it im-
mediately if they get caught. It makes one
start to ponder the possibilities that these
rooms hold.
Tim Brown (2009) says that in order to
build a culture of innovation, you need an
environment “in which people know they
can experiment, take risks, and explore the
full range of their facilities” (p. 32). Could
these rooms be the answer? What tools
could they offer to facilitate stronger col-
laboration? Could they inspire people to
be more creative? Could they offer supplies
for people to experiment with? The possi-
bilities feel endless, and with a demand so
strong for an empty cell of a room, think of
the possibility for the demand of a space
that inspires, drives collaboration and sup-
ports innovation.
Tools
74
“Think of the possibility for the demand of a space that inspires, drives collaboration and supports innovation.”-Leigh Cohen, Designer
Tools
75Tools
76
CONCLUSION:
77
78
THE BIGGER PICTURE OF COLLABORATION
Companies today are quickly realizing that
in order to survive, they must make chang-
es. By supporting a collaborative environ-
ment that will fuel a company’s need for in-
novation, leaders are quickly learning how
to stay ahead in tough economic times.
An example of economy driven collabora-
tion can be found in the recent partnership
between two Memphis, Tennessee corpora-
tions. Both FedEx and TruGreen Lawncare
rely heavily on seasonal workers. Training
new workers at the beginning of the season
costs a great deal of money, but retaining
thousands of extra workers after the end of
the “busy season” is no longer an option for
either company. What started out as an
out-of-the-box comment by a TruGreen ex-
ecutive in a brainstorming session, resulted
in a solution to help both businesses retain
the trained seasonal help they needed.
Conclusion
79
The solution: Since TruGreen’s busy months
are March through September and FedEx’s
rush season is October through February,
seasonal workers at one company get pri-
ority hiring at the other. Plus, if the work-
ers return to their original company when
demand is high, they will receive a rehire
bonus. This off the wall idea became a
collaborative effort that resulted in a solu-
tion that has worked well for both the com-
panies and the employees, with savings
projected at several million dollars. Each
company saves money and retains trained
seasonal help and the seasonal employees
have priority hiring and year-round employ-
ment (R. Cohen, personal communication,
2009).
I feel that by effectively utilizing the right
people, process and tools, successful col-
laborative efforts such as TruGreen-FedEx
can become more commonplace in the
Conclusion
80
business world. I believe that collabora-
tive knowledge is invaluable to all ages
and should be adopted as a part of the
curriculum in early education classrooms,
so that knowing how to collaborate effec-
tively with one other will become second
nature to secondary and post secondary
students. By not stifling creativity and prop-
erly teaching the collaborative process to
students at a every age, we will be helping
to transition them into the real world. We
will also help provide the world with people
that can think and function collaboratively
when the need arises. To do this, we need
to stop breeding a culture of fear and learn
to be fearless. We need to learn to have
fun while finding new ways to solve prob-
lems. We need to remember that we all
have the power to create, with an unstop-
pable imagination that is just waiting to be
unlocked. Of utmost importance, we need
Conclusion
81
to become better educated on how to use
the people, process and tools of collabora-
tion successfully, so that all the pieces can
function together effectively to solve com-
plex problems and find innovative solutions.
Conclusion
INNOVATION
Collaboration People
Tools
Process
82
REFERENCES:
83
Brown, T. (2009). Change by design: How design thinking transforms organizations and inspires innovation. New York: Harperbusiness.
FAQ << CNYSpeaks. (n.d.). CNYSpeaks. Retrieved December 7, 2009, from http://cnyspeaks.com/faq/
Hansen, M. T. (2009). Collaboration: How leaders avoid the traps, create unity, and reap big results. New York: Harvard Business School Press.
Innovation: The view from the top. (2006, April 3). BusinessWeek - Busi-ness News, Stock Market & Financial Advice. Retrieved December 7, 2009, from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_14/b3978073.htm
Kelley, T., with Littman, J. (2005). The ten faces of innovation: IDEO’s strategies for defeating the devil’s advocate and driving creativity throughout your organization. New York: Currency.
Neumeier, M. (2008). The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press.
Pink, D. (2006). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the fu-ture (Rep Upd ed.). Boston: Riverhead Trade.
84
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PHOTO REFERENCES:
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“Bat-Climb” Batman (1966) (TV)http://www.bat-mania.co.uk/trivia/bat-climb.php
“The King and I”The King and I (1956)http://www.imgartists.com/resources/artists/107_4c.jpg
“Yellow Brick Road”Wizard of Oz (1939)http://www.carversation.com/wp-con-tent/uploads/2009/08/yellow_brick_road.jpg
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NOTES:
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