Building Collaborative Design Cultures, Lessons from Filmmaking

Building Collaborative Design Cultures: Lessons from Filmmaking

Fen Zhu, Iren Liao, Julia Moore, Lara Isaacson, Chandra Pandian, & Xichen (Xiaochen) Liu

Introduction

The Art of Design Doing

Guides 5-24

03 07 Structured Interdependence

09

Receptive & Appropriate Contribution

Logistical Foundation

15

Acknowledgment

55 67

1

Relationship Building

Relationship Maintenance

35 47 Bibliography

69

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2

INTRODUCTION

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“In the absence of everyday interactions and encounters, people struggle to signal trustworthiness and demonstrate competencies.� - Keeley Wilson & Yves L. Doz

Promoting effective collaboration in large teams can feel like chasing a mirage. In times of pandemic or under the more typical circumstances of ever globalizing and virtual workplace, the challenges of building an effective team can exponentially grow. You can be leading a fruitful, high energy brainstorm one day. The following day you can be confronted with conflict over project roles. Towards the end of the project someone can be trying to reinvent the wheel, causing delays and relational tension. You can think everyone is on the same page and then at the next video call, no one has successfully finished their work.

As a diverse group of designers with backgrounds in industrial design, design management, design for sustainability, fine art, business, and computer engineering, we have had our fair share of successful and frustrating design projects. In the time of the shelter in place for Covid19, we have all experienced the potential intensification of formulating a design team with only online communication. Additionally, after studying another creative and highly collaborative industry, the Film Industry we have found some insightful collaborative methods and translated back to design. The Film Industry has unique factors, such as 14 hour days, temporary work assignments, strict hierarchy, unions, and physical safety concerns that most design industries do not share. However, their ability to rally experts from many creative fields around a central vision to create, under immense constraints, to create a piece that will please their funders is not only an incredible feat, it is closely akin to all design work. Where design differs from art, film meets both in the middle.

This guide is a compilation of the insights or collaboration guidelines we feel are worth borrowing and adapting for short term project (~10 weeks or less). We’ve outlined an effective design process, best practices, activities, and compiled tools to help you in your journey to more effective and smooth design collaboration.

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Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

Authors: Fen Zhu, Iren Liao, Julia Moore, Lara Isaacson, Chandra Pandian, & Xichen Liu

THE ART OF DESIGN DOING

Inspire Dream big Brainstorm Shape the brief Co-design

Delegate Refine the minutia Adapt

Synthesize Package

Gather the team of diverse experts

Deliver

Decide on a unified vision

Evaluate & focus on what is vital Bike Rack of Ideas Not feasible Future potential Rabbit Trails

With what has become famously known as the “Double Diamond” we can be misled as to what the design process actually is (Design Council, 2015).

Additionally, when we discuss the “Double Diamond” amongst designers, there is often a discussion about how the process is not linear at it actually looks more like a scribble. There have been other diagrams to represent this view as well (Sorensen et al., 2017). However, both misrepresent the design process while both adding to a realistic metaphor. Given these two interpretations and our own primary research, specifically what one interviewee discussed about the distinction between ‘design doing’ and ‘design thinking,’ we have come up with a process map for The Art of Design Doing.

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In this map, there is a clear distinction between the scribble that can represent the meandering and circular process of brainstorming, thought, and creative design. Our brain and experience are certainly not dictated by a linear path, although it often does build on itself and take us through our design process. The process, by contrast, we argue is in fact linear because we all exist in the linear time construct which is our modern understanding of space and time. Until time machines are operational, we hold that you do not really go backwards in your process, even if your thought process does or if you restart or put aside certain aspects of the project. Ultimately, you are moving forward towards your deadline and your delivery. (It is worth noting that for the diagram we are using the left to right reading construct of the Global North.)

It is still useful to carry the “Double Diamond” metaphor of diverging and converging on various ideas in the process (Design Council, 2015), but at each stage you should be honing in on a more focused design. Hence the diamonds here get smaller as you move towards the final deliverable. The number of diamonds could expand or shrink given your time constraints. We chose three in order to mimic the stages of production (Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production) and the lessons you can learn from the film industry’s process organization.

Finally, we acknowledge that the wildly creative process of ‘design thinking’ may inspire side projects which we hope it helps to imagine these being put into a “bike rack” for future development and safe-keeping. No metaphorical map will ever completely encompass the design process but we believe that framing the process this way will help encourage designers to move their designs confidently forward in a timely manner without feeling that the complexity of internal processes are discounted .

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01

=

Structured Interdependence

9

+ +

Understand your role,experience level, and your place Get on board with a unified, primarily top-down vision Acknowledge your interdependence

Photo by Mikola Makhlai on Unsplash

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Almost everyone in design has probably touted or read about the benefits of collaboration for innovation. It’s true that with the right combination of expertise and interaction, collaboration can bring out the most extraordinary capabilities and invention humans can offer. Yet, it’s not as simple as throwing people in a room and saying “make something.” If it was, no one would read this booklet. The film industry has a specific approach to the way people are organized that is highly effective, and we believe design teams should take a page from their book.

First off, everyone in the film industry (or at least all the people anyone enjoys working with) know that their work is highly interdependent. Almost no one can (or rather, should) make a feature length film all by themselves, any more than they should design and manufacture a line of compostable utensils or design a park alone. Moreover, if we examine our weekend errands, we can quickly dissect our naive view on independence. Who sold us our groceries, who bottled our milk, who at the power plant keeps the lights on in the parking lot, who built the train we rode on to get there, and who operates the train?

Even if you live way out in the country, who tests your tap water and who collected the sand for your cement foundations? The more we acknowledge our interdependence, the easier it is to implement all the following guidelines. (As we will explore with Relationship Maintenance, the more people acknowledge this interdependence and share credit, the more people want to keep working with them and working effectively for them.)

On any given team part of acknowledging interdependence is also about knowing your own role and knowing what experience you bring (or don’t bring).

Clarity of roles and communication on roles is key. If you’re not sure of your role, listen. You will inevitably see or hear of a need. Once you’ve established your role, be open to helping others if they need it, but for the most part, just do your own job very well. If you want to make a suggestion, be mindful of who is the team vision leader is. In the film industry, pre-production is the time for more fluid cross-departmental collaboration, but once decisions have been made, it’s time for the crew to get on board with the vision, a vision that often is not their own--despite the fact that the crew is made up of many creative professionals and despite the diverse expertise they all bring. In order to move a film or a project forward, there is dedicated time to contribute in a way that is appropriate for your role, and there is a time to surrender to the agreed upon vision. In rare circumstances a vision or design brief can change late in the process and circumstances do change. However, if that is your regular workflow, your collaborators will likely be confused and frustrated, lowering work quality. Collaboration is not about equal contribution (in amount or quality), it’s about the appropriate type of contribution at the right time. In order to better understand these concepts, see the activity we’ve provided.

Photo by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash

Vol.1

Happy Hour Hackathon

Time: 90-120 minutes Description: Have everyone drop what they’re working on and spend an hour completing a special project that benefits the team. Having multiple departments participate and require employees to work with people on different teams. The point is to have people think outside the box by creating something that requires a new set of skills or way of thinking. Maybe you spend a couple of hours rethinking the project from different perspective.

Example: Sunday coffee experience design Children’s play structure Recreating the resturant experience at home Purpose: Collaborators could have better understanding of other departments’ perspective and think outside of their comfort zone.

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Photo by travelnow.or.crylater on Unsplash

14

02

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Logistical Foundation

15

+

Planning and preparation leads to efficiency Be adaptable through back up plans in changing scenarios

Photo by Eleventh Wave on Unsplash

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17

Photo by Mille Sanders on Unsplash

Although at first glance, being prepared may be the most obvious of the collaboration guidelines, the film industry gives a particular flare to planning that makes it worth exploring for lesson in design. In pre-production the planning is detailed, so that once everyone arrives on set there is no question about who is doing what or about where anything needs to go. Smaller decisions based on a change in weather or making time for an extra shot can be made swiftly as everyone has come prepared. Many creatives fear that such planning would stifle their ability to imagine new scenarios, but the film industry proves otherwise as some of the best collaborative moments come from being ahead of schedule or having the ability to flex to a plan b, c, or d when confronted with surprise constraints. Without rigorous preparation and planning, design opportunities are easily lost in a rush or work becomes sloppy. We have reimagined this work flow in the form of a planner to help guide the adoption of a more structured and efficient process.

It is worth noting that despite this compilation of compelling lessons on how to encourage effective collaboration, a few facts remains prevalent and true. In order to facilitate meaningful collaboration, there needs to be a strong foundation of non-discrimination, high quality compensation, and leadership that listens and decisively but empathetically guides the process. When talking about film industry successes, our interviewees repeatedly mentioned that lacking these things challenged their successful processes. WIthout these fundamentals, a healthy environment and workplace are impossible, and so is the height of any team’s collaboration. Therefore, if you are finding that you are still unable to collaborate well after applying these guidelines, it may be worth looking deeper into your organizational foundations. You will likely still benefit from implementing any of these guidelines, but lacking any one or lacking a strong foundation will certainly set you back. With that in mind, take a look at the planner template we’ve provided. You can adapt it to the length of your project if needed by adding or consolidating pages. The primary goal of the planner is to move beyond a to-do list to prioritize and plan around the skills learned in this guidebook.

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About This Planner

This planner is a template for integrating your collaborative guideline lessons and goals into your next design project. The planner was inspired by the film industry’s “call sheet” which spells out in detail who, what, and when will be on set each day. In addition to your todo list and planning who you need to collaborate with, we have outlined some benchmarks that will help you track your progress on the journey to better collaboration. If you are noticing that you are rating yourself or your group low on certain benchmarks, look at the activity in the related chapter for ideas on ways to improve. Tracking these issues in your weekly reflection can also help you pin point patterns to discuss with your team. In addition to tracking issues and goals, there is also a weekly prioritization matrix to help you better focus your time, a bike rack (to note ideas that may not see relevant right now but could be useful later), and a space to put back-up plans ideas for those moments when you need to adapt.

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Benchmarks

Weekly Priority Planner Weekly Planner

Week1-10 Reflection

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Benchmarks

for Successful Collaboration Open-minded

to diverse ways of operating to diverse cultures to diverse identities to ideas that aren’t your own

Mutual respect Proactively approach your work and situation acknowledge, value, address your feelings

Adaptability Honesty when giving feedback and building trust vulnerability fosters trust

Speak out against discrimination don’t be a passive bystander

Be intentional & decisive to push the work forward Work together for the shared vision Value the work of others Focus on doing your own work well Jump in to support your co-workers when needed

Acknowledge interdependence and share credit Communicate clearly and effectively Actively listen Be receptive to critique Always plan ahead 21

Weekly Priority Planner This planner allows for the prioritization of tasks to be done during this week.

Urgent

Not Urgent Decide on a time to do these task

Delegate someone to do these tasks

Drop these tasks

Not Important

Important

Do these tasks right away

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Week ___ Tuesday

Wednesday

In Process

To Do

Monday

Collaborative Goals

23

Collaborative Challenges

Project Goal of the week: Friday

Saturday

To Do

Thursday

In Process

Sunday

Ideas Bike Rack

Plan B

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Week 1 Reflection Rate yourself in one color and your team in another as you reflect on the benchmarks for this past week

Highlight of Week

Personal Check-in Scale

What Worked for Me?

Open-Minded:

Biggest Frustration

1

2

3

4

5

6

What Didn't Work for Me? Mutual Respect:

1

2

3

4

Active Listener:

1

25

2

3

4

5

6

5

6

What I'm Looking Forward to

What Can I Do To Improve?

Week 2 Reflection Rate yourself in one color and your team in another as you reflect on the benchmarks for this past week

Highlight of Week

Personal Check-in Scale

What Worked for Me?

Honesty to build trust :

Biggest Frustration

1

2

3

4

5

6

What Didn't Work for Me? Always plan ahead:

1

2

3

4

5

6

Stand up for whats right:

1

2

3

4

5

6

What I'm Looking Forward to

What Can I Do To Improve?

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Week 3 Reflection Rate yourself in one color and your team in another as you reflect on the benchmarks for this past week

Highlight of Week

Personal Check-in Scale

What Worked for Me?

Work together for shared vision:

Biggest Frustration

1

2

3

4

5

6 What Didn't Work for Me?

Communicate clearly & effectively:

1

2

3

4

5

Focus on doing your work well:

1

27

2

3

4

5

6

6

What I'm Looking Forward to

What Can I Do To Improve?

Week 4 Reflection Rate yourself in one color and your team in another as you reflect on the benchmarks for this past week

Highlight of Week

Personal Check-in Scale

What Worked for Me?

Adabtability :

Biggest Frustration

1

2

3

4

5

6

What Didn't Work for Me? Receptive to critique :

1

2

3

4

5

Valued others work :

1

2

3

4

5

6

6

What I'm Looking Forward to

What Can I Do To Improve?

28

Week 5 Reflection Rate yourself in one color and your team in another as you reflect on the benchmarks for this past week

Highlight of Week

Personal Check-in Scale

What Worked for Me?

Open-Minded:

Biggest Frustration

1

2

3

4

5

6

What Didn't Work for Me? Decisive & Intentional :

1

2

3

4

5

Approached work proactively:

1

29

2

3

4

5

6

6

What I'm Looking Forward to

What Can I Do To Improve?

Week 6 Reflection Rate yourself in one color and your team in another as you reflect on the benchmarks for this past week

Highlight of Week

Personal Check-in Scale

What Worked for Me?

Always plan ahead :

Biggest Frustration

1

2

3

4

5

6

What Didn't Work for Me? Mutual Respect:

1

2

3

4

Active Listener:

1

2

3

4

5

6

5

6

What I'm Looking Forward to

What Can I Do To Improve?

30

Week 7 Reflection Rate yourself in one color and your team in another as you reflect on the benchmarks for this past week

Highlight of Week

Personal Check-in Scale

What Worked for Me?

Working towards shared vision :

Biggest Frustration

1

2

3

4

5

6 What Didn't Work for Me?

Focus on doing your work well :

1

2

3

4

5

6

Communicate clearly & effectively :

1

31

2

3

4

5

6

What I'm Looking Forward to

What Can I Do To Improve?

Week 8 Reflection Rate yourself in one color and your team in another as you reflect on the benchmarks for this past week

Highlight of Week

Personal Check-in Scale

What Worked for Me?

Giving feedback honestly:

Biggest Frustration

1

2

3

4

5

6

Supported co-workers as needed :

1

2

3

4

5

Approached work proactively :

1

2

3

4

5

6

6

What Didn't Work for Me?

What I'm Looking Forward to

What Can I Do To Improve?

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Week 9 Reflection Rate yourself in one color and your team in another as you reflect on the benchmarks for this past week

Highlight of Week

Personal Check-in Scale

What Worked for Me?

Adabtability :

Biggest Frustration

1

2

3

4

5

6

What Didn't Work for Me? Receptive to critique :

1

2

3

4

5

6

Intentional & Decisive :

1

33

2

3

4

5

6

What I'm Looking Forward to

What Can I Do To Improve?

Week 10 Reflection Rate yourself in one color and your team in another as you reflect on the benchmarks for this past week

Personal Check-in Scale

Acknowledge interdependence and share credit :

1

2

3

4

5

Highlight of Week

What Worked for Me?

Biggest Frustration

6 What Didn't Work for Me?

Value the work of others :

1

2

3

4

5

6

Overall Collaboration :

1

2

3

4

5

6

What I'm Looking Forward to

What Can I Do To Improve?

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03

=

Relationship Building

35

Be trustworthy and trusting

+

Practice respect and honest kindness, regardless of position

Photo by Elodie Oudot on Unsplash

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Many of us have fallen into the mental paradigm that work and personal lives should be 100% separate. This mindset enables us to believe 1. We can be successful without engaging with our colleagues on a personal level and 2. We do not have to worry if we say something rude to someone in the meeting, we can still be friends outside of work. It can be a comforting thought to think that we can completely compartmentalize, and of course, no one should be forced in a work environment to share any personal stories or information that they are not comfortable sharing. However, our experience and research (and likely your own experience) has shown that deeper relationship building can not only inform your work, make it more efficient, but also, make it enjoyable.

Relationships are built or destroyed based on trust. Nearly all of our interviewees and sources cited trust as crucial to collaboration, so knowing how to build that trust is vital. Proving your own trustworthiness is just as important as giving someone the benefit of the doubt. In film most people are hired by people who trust them or by referral. In the design world, we may think that all we need is a good portfolio, but if collaborative work is where innovation lies, yet we don’t believe relationship building is important, we better be prepared to be a solo, non-memorable designer.

Before you start sending us tweets and emails about famous diva directors and rude design gurus, we would like to point out that exceptions do not make the rule.

Photo by RĂŠmi Walle on Unsplash

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So how is trust built? Certainly keeping promises and secrets is a good place to start but how to you get the opportunity? First, you start with yourself. Do you demonstrate respect by listening and watching for others’ valuable contributions, regardless of their position, or do you dismiss people easily? Do you show a kindness through difficult but honest and empathetic one-on-one conversations, or are you polite while watching someone fail and doing nothing to help? Once you’ve done internal work, then comes the challenging external work. Vulnerability builds trust (Brown, 2019) and breaks down stereotypes that prevent us from learning and growing. Now, we’re not saying vent to your coworkers every day as if they are your best friend or romantic partner. Nevertheless, a simple, “I’ve been having a tough weekend. We have had to move apartments, so I am feeling a bit stressed,” can go a long way to increasing empathy. The team can then reorganize work as needed. (Your teams' flexibility is particularly likely, if you follow your confession with a genuine commitment to doing the work even if it will be a bit late or an reasonable ask for help when you typically follow through with your commitments.) Of course, none of these things can be done overnight, and with short-term design projects it can be difficult to build trust with those you don’t know. Additionally, it’s not always considered professional nor is it practical/or always desirable to share much of your life with a large team.

However, building trust within your smaller teams and with the people that cross between teams frequently will go a long way.

In order to reach a level of trust that will be sufficient for the project, we’ve designed some exercises to get you started.

Photo by Donald Giannatti on Unsplash

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Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

Vol.1

Values Exercise

Time: 15-20 minutes Description: Have participants sit together in one circle. There is a list of values. Participants take turns to choose and write down every core values that resonates with them. Then group all similar values together from the list of values you just created. Choose one word within each grouping that best represents the label for the entire group. Each participant talks about the feelings or experiences from values.

Purpose: As well as helping people understand what values are and why they matter, the exercises provide those already familiar with values a chance to experiment further. This activity also helps build empathy and trust in the group.

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Values Abundance

Credibility

Innovation

Acceptance

Curiosity

Inspiration

Accountability

Daring

Intelligence

Achievement

Decisiveness

Intuition

Advancement

Dedication

Joy

Adventure

Dependability

Kindness

Advocacy

Diversity

Knowledge

Ambition

Empathy

Leadership

Appreciation

Encouragement

Learning

Attractiveness

Enthusiasm

Love

Autunomy

Ethics

Loyalty

Balance

Excellence

Mindfulness

Being the best

Expresssiveness

Motivation

Benevolence

Fairness

Optimism

Brillance

Family

Open-Mindedness

Boldness

Friendships

Originality

Calmness

Flexibility

Passion

Caring

Freedom

Peace

Challenge

Fun

Perfection

Charity

Generosity

Performance

Cheerfulness

Grance

Playfulness

Cleverness

Growth

Popularity

Community

Happiness

Power

Commitment

Health

Preparedness

Compassion

Honesty

Proactivity

Cooperation

Humility

Professionalism

Collaboration

Humor

Proactive

Consistency

Inclusiveness

Professionalism

Contribution

Independence

Punctuality

Creativity

Individuality

Quality

Recognition Resilience Resourcefulness Responsibility Responsiveness Rish Taking Safety Security Self-Control Selfessness Service Simplicity Spirituality Stability Sucess Teamwork Thankfulness Thoughtfulness Traditionalism Trustworthiness Understanding Uniqueness Usefulness Versatility Vision Warmth Wealth Well-Being Wisdom Zeal

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Vol.2

Check In

Time: 5-10 minutes Description: Have participants stand together in one circle. Participants take turns to speak out one thing in their mind. It not only could be a roadblock in their current life, but also could be something he/she feels happy with and wants to share. The subjects could be daily, joyful, and even heartbreaking.This is not intended to create a lengthy conversation, but to acknowledge that everyone is coming in with valid experiences and feelings. If these outside aspects are spoken to, then work can be more efficient.

Example: Participant A: I adopted a kitten last weekend and I am very happy.

Participant B: I‘ve been suffering from insomnia since this Monday.

Participant C: My grandma is in the hospital right now and I am very anxious.

Participant D: I think I messed up the research data for this project yesterday.

Purpose: Understanding collaborators’ condition is the foundation of building a healthy and friendly relationship.

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Photo by Jessica Da Rosa on Unsplash

Vol.3

Two Weaknesses & One Expertise

Time: 10-15 minutes Description: Have participants and face each other. This activity is similar to Two Truths and a Lie. Each player must state three facts about themselves. Others guess which one is their expertise and which one is their weakness. After that players can also talk more about about their strengths. Then go around the circle and have each person share his or her three facts (in a random order).

Example: Participant A: I am good at skiing. I am good a being organized. I am an talented oil painter.

Others: Is skiing your expertise?

Participant A: Yes! I am good at skiing. I go skiing every winter and I do black diamonds for every run.

Purpose: Allows co-workers to learn more about each other and shows that everyone has something to contribute. Sharing weaknesses can encourage a small amount of vulnerability that can lead to trust. Finally, skill sharing can reveal unexpected sources of inspiration, useful later in the project.

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Photo by Miguel Andrade on Unsplash

04

=

Relationship Maintenance

47

+ +

Be dedicated, positive (and proactive with issues), and decisive Communicate with intention and specificity Be open to better ideas and share credit & gratitude

Photo by Thomas Kinto on Unsplash

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In terms of maintaining relationships beyond an initial meet and greet or short exercise, there are some qualities that you can develop in yourself and model in your team to encourage long-term success. Our film professionals affirmed these qualities as keys to their success as they told story after story of their best film crew experiences. Dedication and passion for the project or at least an aspect of the project will help with motivation on the days when there is relationship strain or high stress. An important thing to remember about motivation is that it follows action (Manson, 2016). Although it is always good to work when motivation strikes, when motivation is low, try to do one small thing to snowball the motivation. Moreover, as a manager, it is important to monitor the amount of work employees have. Simply saying, “Make sure to take your days off,” when their workload is not any lighter than it was when they stopped taking days off, does not count as encouraging a work-life balance. As an employee, whenever you can, set healthy boundaries. Work hard at work, but if it’s not required, do not put work emails on your phone or don’t stay late to do something that can be done tomorrow. You may become a linchpin in your department, but you set dangerous precedents for your own mental health (and consequently change the standards for your colleagues in a way that can promote a competitive work environment that deters collaboration). Again, do your work very well, but whenever possible, do it at work or during work hours if you work remotely. The societal shift away from impossible hours, starts with those who are in secure jobs gently refusing to work unhealthy hours. Healthier hours helps with productivity and motivation.

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash 49

Another helpful quality is a positive attitude. Rather than a lot of grumbling about something that needs to change, acknowledge the inconvenience, keep it in perspective, and work with others to find another way. What seems like an emergency at first, often isn’t if the team can be flexible and adaptable. In Relationship Building, we showed how adaptability is fostered by diverse expertise and back up plans. A positive, clear head, helps you take advantage of that planning. Before we continue, it is important to note that a positive attitude is not about pretending everything is fine when it isn’t. It is not about ignoring or shoving down your feelings. It is about giving feelings appropriate recognition and then being proactive about moving to a better space. When you can’t do it alone, ask for help. When your team won’t help, you need to find another team, you need more team members to help with the load, or simply you need someone outside the team (such as a therapist) to help you process your emotions and move towards a healthier space. False positivity will ultimately deteriorate relationships.

Photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash

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Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash

Finally, being decisive is a key quality to moving a project forward.

Be confident in what you know and humble enough to change your mind or adopt a better idea, no matter where the idea came from.

Inspiration for a good design can come from a fragment of information, a misunderstanding in a conversation, or any number of small exposures to images or objects (Schrage, 1989). No decision will ever be perfect, but if you don’t make a decision, you will delay the project, your colleagues may lose faith in your ability to carry forward your work, and you will not learn. Being confident is not about telling others how to do their work or about ignorantly dictating, but being decisive and trusting yourself to do your work.

Along with all these qualities, it bears mentioning that no collaboration can succeed without clear and regular communication.

This was cited as the number one key to success in film in a survey of over 30 professionals. As obvious as this may seem, many people do not speak with intention or specificity when collaborating. There is also not often enough space given for the thought needed to be communicated this way. In fast paced meetings, it is difficult to create a culture of listening and meaningfully contributing. If leaders (whether of not they are managers), take a moment to pause after a question or give the floor to someone who hasn’t had a chance to contribute, communication can being to be more comprehensive and clear.

Additionally, when the time comes that you are inspired by someone, immediately acknowledge it, outloud. Immediate feedback on what is working and sharing credit will help motivate others to contribute as well. In the middle of a project, at the end of a meeting, and certainly at the end of the project, thank your team. It doesn’t matter what your position on the team is, although this is vital for managers, cultivating sincere gratitude will not only help maintain relationships, it will smooth communications, and improve your own outlook. If you are having trouble being grateful, that may indicate underlying issues in the team. If you understand and begin to look for ways to communicate better ways forward, you leave the door open for change. The following activity can help you build intentionality, particularly in leadership and communication that is necessary for relationship maintenance.

Vol.1

The One Question

Time: 15-20 minutes Description: Have participants and face each other. One participant puts forward a topic related to leadership, communication, or long-term team goals, and others can ask some related questions according to the topic.

The person who asked the question will answer. Then go around the circle.

Example: If some people want to nominate themselves to be a leadership position, Each of the other members can ask that person one question about how they would handle a difficult situation during the design process.

Purpose: A way to encourage thinking ahead and maintaining the good relationship foundations, particularly from a leadership perspective. It also encourages specificity in communication of shared values and goals.

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Photo by Camylla Battani on Unsplash

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05

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Receptive & Appropriate: Contribution 55

Listen and hold space for others

+

Give honest feedback and be receptive to critique

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

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We have discussed the idea of being good communicators in Relationship Maintenance and differentiating how appropriate contribution differs from equal contribution in Structural Interdependence. Yet even these concepts are easier said than practiced. We feel it is worth a deeper dive into how to give and receive effective contribution because it is something all of us have failed at in one group or another.

Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash

A creative space should be open and safe--not only physically, but safe to explore and even challenge ideas. ‘Safe’ does not mean that no one is allowed to disagree.

In fact, in a safe space everyone should feel the ability to disagree openly. Along with disagreement, however, there needs to be an openness to being wrong, or at least wrong in this context or wrong for this project. In order to foster this openness, people need to not just hear that leadership values disagreements, they need to see this modeled. On a film set, if the director shuts down the DP with harsh words and regularly ignores the Script Supervisor, the crew will get the idea that is is not safe to innovate, not safe to send an idea up the chain or point out a problem. However, if a leader sits humbly with their team, patiently waits for responses by not filling every second with their words, asks specific questions (especially ones that cater to their team’s expertise), and builds off of the ideas contributed, the whole team will have the opportunity to adopt this posture.

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Photo by Diego PH on Unsplash

In addition to safe spaces, each team member can show that they value others contributions, recognizing, for example, the place of entry-level work as integral to the process even if it does not amount to the same number of hours, the same level of expertise, or the same difficulty of other work. Collaboration is not about equal contribution, yet the quality of each contribution does elevate or lessen the whole.

Therefore, honest feedback and receptiveness to critique follow listening and trust in importance for collaboration. Feedback that is genuinely curious and assumes good intention, is open to recognizing a misunderstanding, and still reflects the best of a person’s expertise, helps a team find better designs and encourages personal growth. Nevertheless, feedback is not always accurate. If approached with a genuine curiosity on both sides, and there is still disagreement on a way to design or a way to operate as a team, you can agree to do a trial period with a mutually beneficial goals and a timeline for evaluating the design or process. Then, each person can be heard and a way forward can be discovered. Moreover, sometimes overcoming resistance to receiving or acting on feedback lies within our own insecurities or convictions.

Sometimes giving feedback is difficult because it makes us vulnerable to critique.

Critiquing a project that the team is passionate about is difficult because there is investment in the work. We believe that the best way to overcome these barriers to receptive and appropriate contribution is by naming the issues. The increasingly common “critique sandwich,� while a good start, does not uncover the deeper human and complex challenges within design collaboration. To begin the process of learning how your team can improve its contributions, we have created a critiquing exercise.

Make sure to leave room for discussion at the end of each part as the most important insights come from the analysis of the activity.

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Vol.1

Blind Storytelling

Time: 10-20 minutes Description: This activity is a story formation. Have participants and face each other with their eyes closed. Each person takes turns in random order just saying one sentence or one word, and everyone adds to the story according to what the last person said. Participants should make as much sense of what they are saying as possible. There is also one person who is assigned as the judge to make sure that it makes sense. If the judge thinks the newest addition does not make sense, a new story will have to be formulated. Finally, making an interesting story with all of the participants contributing one word or sentence.

Example: Participant A: A dog is walking down the road.

Participant B: Suddenly, the dog sees a cat.

Participant C: The dog is swimming in the pond in the meadow.

Judge: It doesn’t make sense; start again!

Purpose: Focus on the importance of listening to and communicating with one another. Also, this allows the group to practice listening to the vision leader (the judge) and figuring out when is an appropriate moment to contribute and when to listen.

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Photo by Paolo Nicolello on Unsplash

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Vol.2

Critique Exercise

Time: 15-20 minutes Description: Have all participants face each other. Put participants in groups of two. Provide pre-prepared descriptions of failed designs or easy-to mock designs (such as a unitasker product from As Seen on TV) to each participant. They must pretend this design is theirs. Make sure the designs are not from your industry (e.g. don’t use products for industrial design). This helps depersonalize the subject to help participants learn.

In the second round, they can critique something more personal. Have all participants write down one positive thing about the design and as many negative things as they can think of about their partner’s design.

Have the pair take turns role playing giving and receiving this critique.

Share back with the group. Then, switch up the partners. Have each person brainstorm a design that they personally like and that their partner is familiar with. Go though the critique process again. Share back the differences with the entire group. Notice how it feels different with a subject you are closer to. Notice any things that you feel reluctant to share even if it honestly needs to be said.

Example: Product designs for graphic design team to critique in the first round: Snuggies, strawberry slicer, or fidget spinners. For the second role, a graphic designer, may like Saul Bass’s Kleenex box design and their partner can critique that.

Purpose: A way to teach creative teams how to deal with difficult situations and how to give and receive constructive but honest feedback.

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Photo by Ian Chen on Unsplash

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As we wrap up this guide, remember that each one of these practices take time to fully develop. We hope that these lessons from the film industry will help you diagnose issues you’ve faced and that the activities can be practiced and adapted to help you find energizing collaboration in your design teams.

Photo by Jaanus Jagomägi on Unsplash

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

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We would like to thank all of our wonderful interviewees from the film industry for their generosity with their time and expertise. We would also like to give a very warm thank you to Amy Lacy who is a professional Script Supervisor and who provided us with guidance and wisdom throughout the our project and design of this guidebook.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Brown, D. (2016, August 11). How to play Surviving Design Projects.

Retrieved from https://greenonions.com/how-to-play-surviving-designprojects-5cbe8ac6acd1 Kalish, A. (2020, May 12). 22 Team-Building Activities for Any Kind of Workplace. Retrieved from https://www.themuse.com/advice/teambuilding-activities-games-for-work-office Ku, A. (2019, March 29). Creating a card game to gamify the Product Design Process. Retrieved from https://medium.com/digitaldetoxco-uk/creating-a-card-game-to-gamify-the-product-designprocess-d863420723 kununu. (2019, May 25). 30 Words to Describe Company Culture (Whether Good or Bad). Retrieved from https://b2b.kununu.com/ blog/30-words-to-describe-company-culture-whether-good-or-bad smartsheet. (n.d.). Top Team-Building Games from the Experts.

Retrieved from https://www.smartsheet.com/top-team-building-gamesexperts-share-their-favorites?drch=icpm Taproot . (2013, April 11). Live Your Core Values: 10-Minute Exercise to Increase Your Success. Retrieved from https://www.taproot.com/liveyour-core-values-exercise-to-increase-your-success/ Photo Credit: Back cover photo: Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash

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