YakShaving

Today in Intro to Design, we were lucky to have Chris Bernard (from Microsoft), also an ID alum talk to us about teaming. If you’re reading this Chris, thanks! So, I’ve worked on several teams in the past. I don’t think its physically possible to graduate from a 4 yr program anymore without doing some teamwork. I had the fortune of working with several student groups– and even being responsible for one with a huge staff and ambitious goals, Model United Nations @ Michigan.

I consider myself a veteran to teamwork and feel like I’ve learned a lot about working with different "types" of people. Of course, there are a couple things wrong with my confidence here. There are of course no "types" of people. Every individual has unique qualities and delightful nuances they bring to the table that can help (and sometimes hinder) a team’s progress. A simple exercise we did today was share a little about our life story with another person– who then shared it with the entire class. Almost immediately, we gain a deeper understanding of the people we work with, and we are attuned to each others’ goals and passions. If each of us shared our own stories to the class, we’d be a little hesitant to share as much information. I thought this was kind of an interesting dynamic.

There’s a good quote that I always have to hunt for but now I found that there are several versions of it, which are attributed to several notable leaders. The one I like the best goes like this:

There is no limit to the good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.

General George C. Marshall

In the field of cross-disciplinary design, you work with others. A lot. So much so, that there have been 2 teamwork lecturettes and a whole 3 hr class dedicated to teaming. The takeaway that struck me is how helpful it can be to create a common vocabulary– and a mutual understanding around certain phrases. For instance, David, in his teamwork lecturette pointed out, if someone says "I’m just not feeling it.." or "I’m not sure if I’m aligned with this, guys…", there is tacit understanding about the meaning of this phrase. A flag goes off in everyone’s head and this prevents a situation where negative conflict can arise. Conflict can be positive, because it can lead to insight and ultimately a better decision, but negative conflict can injure the team dynamic and prevent future results.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if *every* manager– and every corporate culture embraced the notion of a common phrasebook, we’d have more productive teams.