Step 1: Research and Hypotheses
From research on collaboration and creativity, there are a number of different hypotheses around what might help solve the collaboration and creativity challenge. Research included scouring the internet, reading books and taking lots of notes. Collaboration and creativity are closely tied together, but this project is especially interested in exploring how collaboration can drive creativity. The hypotheses resonating most are:
Fear
Eradicating fear from our culture will spur collaboration, creativity and higher quality work that drives the bottom line. Fear could include:
● Fear of empathizing with the customer
● Fear of being judged by others and self
● Fear of taking the first step
● Fear of losing control
● Fear of failure
Environment
Effective collaboration and creativity is dependent on the environment in which the collaboration is taking place. Contributors to environment include creative office space design and fulfillment of vital needs (i.e. food, exercise, sleep)
Modeling
Executive leadership teams must model collaboration and creativity in a visible and easily perceivable way for employees. Employees believing their leaders practice collaboration and creativity will drive them to act similarly.
Culture
The culture of an organization is what drives collaborative behavior both within the company and between companies. Habits, behaviors and norms that foster a creative culture will enhance collaboration.
Step 2: Empathy Synthesis
Listening to people and observing resulted in many insights. Patterns and themes emerged from the insights and they were framed into opportunity areas (How might we…? statements). Each opportunity area has a composite narrative of the insights behind the question.
Respect Individuality
“I was working on a big project for a very prominent client. It was one of those horror projects with a big team, all different departments. I hadn’t worked with anyone on the team before, so I couldn’t really trust them. There was no manager; a lack of cohesion and no one knew how their piece fit into the puzzle. Everyone was constantly trying to figure out what the big picture of the project was all about. There were some huge egos on the team that would give destructive feedback. Nothing was ever ‘right’ and I had to keep going back and forth repeatedly ‘fixing’ things. I felt like people were wasting my time and I’m a very busy person. Everyone on the team was over-worked and had way too much on their plates. Resentment and anger built up and I started to think everyone else on the team was incompetent.
The whole team was en-route for a client presentation and our flight got cancelled. We got stuck in the airport for 4 hours together. For the first time, we talked to each other for real. All the animosity came out. We got a chance to understand each other as people. I learned that one of the people I was beginning to resent had a newborn baby; she wasn’t sleeping at night. If I were in her shoes, I’d barely be able to write two words, much less the two pages I demanded from her. We understood one another’s schedules, our strengths, weaknesses, limitations. We started to respect and trust one another; we finally got on the same page. We became friends. Now, the project runs much smoother and we have constructive conversations. I even feel comfortable asking people from this team for help on other projects.”
How might we be friends first and co-workers second?
Purpose and Meaning
“I’m working on a really neat project right now. The project is related to STEM education and creating an empowering experience for underprivileged teenage girls. We help them make electric cars out of fridges and in this awesome garage. There were many more applications than we could accept. Reading the applications brought me to tears; it was tough not to pick every single one. This kind of stuff gets me moving because it’s for good. The girls get jazzed up and believe ‘we have a future.’ It’s a chance to be part of helping someone’s life be better. You get to see ‘lightbulbs’ flash on as their eyes widen with wonder. You see them reaching; these teenage girls who are already so strong that want to learn to be stronger. I want to be part of their lives because it’s self-fulfilling. I feel like I get to live HumanKind with this project. It’s not just about the talking, I actually get to execute and be in the garage with these remarkable girls. I feel special and really proud to be a part of this.
It’s a smaller client, so there aren’t as many resources allocated here. I have to cover other jobs that are nowhere near my job description (i.e. event planning), but I’m happy to do it because this matters. I want to be part of these girls’ lives because I feel good helping. “
How might we encourage employees to maintain personal values from home at work?
Fear
“Earlier in my career, I used to be really scared of voicing my ideas in meetings. I would have all these great solutions, but I’d keep quiet most of the time. Then, someone else would say my idea from my head later and everyone would love it. That sucked. I guess I was scared about what others would think of me if I offered a bad idea, or if it was wrong. I felt like it wasn’t really my place to say things in meetings. Sometimes, I really struggled to understand if meetings were about collaboration or if it was all just a power game?
After being here for nearly a decade, I got experience. I gained confidence in speaking up. What really helped me gain confidence is when I started talking to coworkers about this fear and realized I wasn’t alone.
I was tasked with taking over a new department that didn’t have a clear definition. So, I was trying lots of things no one had done before. I got really curious and didn’t have to pretend like I knew everything. Because it was all so new, no one expected me to be an expert; my job was to ask questions and learn. I saw an opportunity to build relationships; people were willing to listen and teach me. I did a lot of, “let’s just try it and see” where I thought of everything as an experiment and wasn’t attached to the outcome. It was fun. Now, I don’t worry so much about being wrong.”
How might we encourage more risks to be taken and learned from?
Step 3: Design Thinking Workshop
Idea Generation
I gathered together a diverse group of disciplines and heirarchies. Together we tackled each How might we question by generating as many ideas that could solve for each pillar.
How might we be friends first and co-workers second?
How might we encourage employees to maintain personal values at work?
How might we encourage more risks to be taken and learned from?
Prototypes
Each of the three teams in the workshop developed a prototype. Each team tested their prototype during the workshop where other teams became the ‘users.’ What follows is their descriptions and feedback from the first test of these prototypes.
A Maker Store & Showroom
How might we encourage employees to maintain personal values from home at work?
- Leo Employees creates art or various products or innovations.
- Store exposes these products for sale to the public.
- A Startup counter is also available to guide product-makers thru the process of creation. (Strategy, Prototype, Production, Point-Of-Sale, Promotion)
- Online store as well
Examples of products featured: paintings, posters, t-shirt art, music compositions, sculptures, star-reachers mobile, 3-D printed creations, new product innovation prototypes
Events: Launch parties, wine & cheese discovering and Ted-style talks mini lectures, Featured-artist social gatherings, business workshops, etc
Feedback:
● They would be intrigued and walk in the shop
● They liked the Leo-themed stars mobile
● They like the creativity that this fosters
● They didn't know if this would be profitable so to do a test first in some ways where we don't have to pay retail space – maybe an online opportunity instead
● They liked the idea of having startup knowledge, process or consultancy there
They like the opportunity for socialization: they mention wine & cheese events, artist feature event, SharkTank-like pitches, and workshop on commerce tactics etc.
Redesign the workplace
How might we encourage more risks to be taken and learned from?
For this we looked over what people’s ideas were, and many were centered around no hierarchy, openness in meetings, and different work conditions(working outside, working in different environments).
The prototype we came up with was a new floor plan for team spaces. The idea was to open up the floor plan, give space to meet others (bar area, middle seating space), open desk spaces, and a digital wall where people could post work to get feedback. We decided to also keep cubicles in order to allow people to still have their own space.
Comments from the others included:
-Need more meeting space
-Liked the round table in the middle
-Liked open space for a different view
-Thinks people would be nervous about presenting in a larger space (referring to digital wall)
-Would want a space for quiet
-would like phone booths, white boards
-They weren’t sure that this would make them be riskier.
Congenial Meetings
How might we be friends first and co-workers second?
We came up with a new format for project kickoff meetings that would include lunch and introductions facilitated by the meeting organizer. We’d begin with lunch/conversation for 20 minutes, with 40 minutes left to go over the brief.
This would allow people to get to know each other a bit before starting on a project.
We "acted out" the scene with some members of the other teams, and here is some of the feedback we got:
● Some people prefer to sit at a table because it feels more equal and it's easier to eat.
● This should be used only for projects involving people who haven't worked together before.
● People are more likely to show up on time when food and drinks are involved.
● Walk through the brief while people are eating and then introduce people and talk about the project.
Go around after that and get introductions and people's first thoughts about the project. Facilitator should try to get people to say what they do, what their role would be, not just a job title.