The Importance of Collaboration in Today’s Design Society

Every day we collaborate with others without even realizing, it’s almost done subconsciously. Someone tweets something that we like, so we retweet it. By doing so we infer that we feel the same way or that we like what they are saying. We collaborate to get a point across. Or, we ask a friend’s opinion when we are in doubt about something. I.e. if our outfit looks good, if we should say a certain sentence in a text or what we should have for dinner. All of these choices and questions are the results of us collaborating with people around us.

In today’s society, many people seem to have this complex where they feel too good to work with others or to value other’s opinions. It’s like this giant rat race to the top. When we are told that we NEED to collaborate or work with others, it’s often like the world is ending. But, if we don’t realize we are doing it or we do it by choice, then it seems to be a very different scenario. We get put into group projects and sometimes complain about who we have to work with or the scenario that we have to deal with. Or, we get put on an assignment at work to collaborate with someone that we may not necessarily like, but we do it.

So, why is it important to collaborate? Well no two minds are the same. Everyone brings something different to the table and we all have different strengths and weaknesses. By working together, we achieve something greater than if we were working alone. We can bounce off of each others skill sets and work together in order to get something done in a bigger and better way.

The best part is, collaboration is actually molding with the trends in society. Nowadays, it is very common to have group projects in school with people who do not all live near each other or to have to work with people from a different location at your office. Instead of having to waste time traveling or talking on Skype. there are now so many platforms available to get digital collaboration done faster and more efficiently. Hosts such as Trello, Slack, Google Hangouts/Google Docs, all make virtual collaboration easier. Everyone can work on the same project from different locations, it makes team communication easier and it allows work to be done in a more efficient matter (in my opinion)

I read on a blog recently that, “Collaboration not only equals a happier workforce, it represents an educated one. This is because it naturally inspires a sense of community within an organization, meaning that employees feel almost like they are a part of a family. Additionally, collaboration allows employees to learn from each other and the bosses.” I could not find this to be more true. Collaboration allows us to get exposure in ways that we could have never imagined.

In a world that relies so heavily on technology and social media, I think that it is very important for us as designers to take advantage of every outlet for collaboration that we are exposed to. It will make us better designers and professionals in the future.