shot from the hip

“Managing collaborations will be the DNA of the company”*

last week the good people at experientia linked to a uk design council report – ‘lessons from europe.’ besides having a title which sounds like a rick mercer skit, the report follows the previous year’s research (lessons from america) and summarizes the results of a fact-finding delegation sent to universities, studios and businesses in the netherland, denmark and finland, the purpose of which was so that the “UK could exploit its creative capabilities more fully in order to respond to the growing threat from rapidly emerging economics.”

some of their key findings are what you would expect, speaking towards rise of multi-disciplinary approaches and individuals, and the integration of these in project work, research and education. a few points that jumped out are below, relevant in light of recent thoughts about multi-disciplinarity, roles and innovation from LIFT08 and otherwhere. while these trends may be effective in the context of these countries, i wonder about the metrics for success that they’re using and what the long-term effects of these approaches will be. we see these style of approach happening in toronto, with the rotman integrative thinking mba and the institute without boundaries, where else do you see multi-disciplinary innovation teams happening in canada?

• Companies and design consultancies are increasingly using multi-disciplinary teams to innovate, develop new products and services, and deliver value to clients.
• There was an emphasis on products rather than services or media content, and most of the models of innovation were based on interaction between product design, engineering and business – few other disciplines were mentioned.
• Multi-disciplinary business practices have created the need for hybrid managers – people who can bridge the gap between the design world and the business world.
• In addition to an ethos of collaboration amongst faculty the majority of the programmes we visited beneited from organisational structures and funding arrangements that support cross-disciplinary education and research.
• The consensus of opinion was that multi-disciplinary teamwork organised around a creative, technical and business triangle provides a more robust way of thinking and is therefore more likely to produce innovative solutions to increasingly complex problems.
• The rise in multi-disciplinarity has created the need for hybrids who can work horizontally across the disciplines as “motivators, co-ordinators and enablers”. These are people who have the expertise and communication skills to bridge the gap between the design world and the business world. (see the t-shaped breadth and depth)
• There is debate over whether entire courses need to be re-structured along multi­-disciplinary lines or whether it is possible to achieve the same results by adding short courses in innovation to existing programmes. The Helsinki School of Entrepreneurship (HSCE) and WorkCamp07 are both examples of intensive innovation courses using students to solve real-world industry problems. Both initiatives are in the early stages of development. The HSCE is positioned as a ‘rapid prototyping programme’ and involves mixed groups of students working on raw start-up ideas through a process that includes a 1-day teambuilding workshop and a 3-day creative boot camp. For Executive Director Peter Kelly, they want to create “a sheltered place to fail” where the aim is to promote entrepreneurship in a country that is culturally risk adverse. Kelly commented “during the piloting phase 2 business students dropped out because they couldn’t cope with the ambiguity. We were most impressed with the designers but they lacked confidence”.
• He strongly believes that innovation within a university setting is not possible because “you need a neutral space where everyone is equal, as soon as people arrive inside the space at WorkCamp they know the rules are different”.
• Project-based learning was championed by all the programmes we visited and the collaborative ethos at departmental level was evident in student’s willingness to develop ideas jointly.
• Across all the programmes the notion of rapid prototyping was a constant theme and all the institutions had modern and well equipped facilities and work spaces.

*Hans Robertus, Philips