Mi:Lab Principle 5: Innovation happens at the boundary of disciplines

Collaboration and exploration across silos can take us to uncharted territories full of opportunity

Collaborating with teams from different departments or silos can spark new ways of thinking. Although at first, this collaboration may seem daunting, we should embrace cognitive diversity that contributes a variety of diverse methods in our approach to problem-solving.

This effective collaboration becomes crucial in the design process, as we can often explore new perspectives and challenge boundaries to make way for innovative solutions that would have been impossible to reach individually.

When collaborating in cross-disciplinary teams, it is important to remain open minded and defer judgement in a way that might disregard another’s idea. Although you may disagree at first, this idea may be one that sparks inspiration for a final idea.

When attempting to collaborate with those outside of your usual ‘circle’ it is also vital to leave behind the attitude of “us versus them”. This thinking can hinder collaboration by creating silos. A shared mindset is critical to ensure the team are working towards one collective goal, together.

Mi:Lab Principle 5 in Action: Group Brainstorming

Group Brainstorming takes full advantage of the experience, creativity and diverse set of skills of all team members. Another member’s creativity may spark inspiration that can take the idea to the next stage.

Group brainstorming can develop ideas in greater depth and congregate ideas from others, with diverse backgrounds and varying perspectives. In higher education, we often have access to countless departments with a set of diverse skills. However, finding the time and opportunity to collaborate can often be challenging and sometimes daunting. Group brainstorming provides an ideal platform where all of the members of the group have the opportunity to express their opinions and work collectively to develop new ideas.

Instructions:

Step 1: Centre The Problem Centre a ‘How Might We’ statement or problem statement on the wall for all members of the team to see. For the purposes of illustration, you may brainstorm ideas surrounding the lack of study space for students.

Step 2: Quantity Over Quality Set a timer for three minutes and have everyone write as many solutions to this problem as they can think of onto sticky notes. Think quantity over quality in this instance — it’s about getting as many ideas out there as possible. We encourage you to even think of ‘bad’ and wild ideas. What you think are potentially ‘bad’ ideas could spark a thought or solution by someone else in the group.

Step 3: Discussion When the three minutes are up, allow each member to discuss briefly their concepts. Stick all sticky notes onto a blank wall and discuss as a team how you can build on each concept. As the discussion continues, it can be useful to group similar ideas together by physically moving the corresponding sticky notes closer together.

Tips

Appreciate the diverse range of ideas from the group — This unique variety of concepts would have been difficult to achieve individually or by a group of people from the same discipline.

Quantity over quality — Aim to write down as many ideas as possible within the given time. The time for refining these ideas will follow so it is better to have a wider pool to choose from.

Get visual — As a rule of thumb, try not to write any more than 10 words on a sticky note. Don’t be afraid to include a brief sketch on the sticky note instead.

Bad ideas welcome — Don’t worry if you think your idea won’t fit the bill. Often, the ideas we perceive to be ‘bad ideas’ may spark a new idea.

Discuss and build — Leave adequate time for a group discussion after you had finished writing down ideas. The group is able to collaborate and build on the ideas that have been written down.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T — Respect the ideas of others and their perspective. Following a discussion may understand the potential of that idea.