FACILITATING CREATIVE
THINKING 121
FACILITATING CREATIVE THINKING
Close up of kinesthetic model build (in-class charette).
Course Description
Successful design managers need to be able to create the conditions for creative thinking and innovation within an organization composed of a wide variety of professionals, most of whom are not familiar with design thinking. The purpose of this course was to prepare students to lead teams in the envisioning of new ideas and solutions by developing skills in framing, imaging and group interaction as they applied the process of design conceptualization outside of the familiar domain of studio skills. In a series of simulations and group exercises, the students acquired experience in idea facilitation through working successfully with non-design people in a creative mode.
Course Goals
General objectives and purpose of the course: 1. Students learn how to deliberately apply the creative process on demand. 2. Students learn about lateral thinking principles and generative methods in order to conduct creative exploration and problem-solving
Class during first meeting with Sivasilam Thiagarajan, “Thiagi�.
sessions with groups comprised of people with diverse backgrounds, goals and experiences. 3. Students develop skill in interpreting and contextualizing the outcomes of creative sessions as clearly defined implications and actionable objectives pertaining to the domain of interest. 4. Students gain exposure to industry partners in the practice of applying design thinking to business, organizational, social and economic issues. Jose, Mark, and Jian playing Wiki-Links.
Student Learning Outcomes
Competencies and measurable skills that students develop as a result of completing the course: 1. Students demonstrate creative problem-solving skills as a precondition to facilitate creative thinking within groups and guide participants in developing their individual potential. 2. Students explain the amorphous thought process of the designer in sound tangible ways that make sense for non-designers through creation of conceptual models. 3. Students extract and interpret ideas from others as the key ingredient of collaboration and organizational creativity. 4. Students position and validate the collaborative creative process as business culture in practice.
Sandra, Zach, and Luyoa brainstorming.
COURSE INTRODUCTION
PLAY TEAM The focus of the Play Team was designing interactive lectures of the assigned readings for every class. Each reading was delegated to different students in the class throughout the quarter. Through the interactive lectures, the Play Team documented feedback from the class to hone in on what aspects made up an engaging learning experience. The documented findings made their way into the design of both the Charrette and Visioning Workshop; taking the best practices and applying them for the client.
Play team working on their Road Map.
PLAY TEAM
PLAY TEAM
5 BOLD STEPS Our team convened around the map and ideated on what a play team should focus on.
We came to a consensus as to what the group would prioritize and began posting main concepts on the map around the main goal (the sun). Once we had put down all of our focuses, the discussion took place of which step was important and which took the most priority. Some ideas began to overlap as we covered more aspects of the play team, but some seemed more like amalgamations or even results of ideas. The main vision that we were left with after this filtration process was “Creative Engagement”. The supplementary goals leading to that main vision were as follows:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Positive Atmosphere Shared Growth Uninhibited Play Time Openness A Level Playing Field Cooperative Management
During our ideation, our team member’s visions were sporadic at first; our concept of “Play” was naturally different from each person. By putting everyone’s ideas on the board, we were able to make sure that each refined focus was constructed with a basis from each member.
Play team’s Visioning Map.
EVALUATION
The first map had a hybrid of part of our play team and another student as opposed to the whole play team present; this led to the rest of the group not having enough buy-in to quickly go through the second map. Our team did the stoplight exercise (Green, yellow, and red stickies indicating whether we had achieved, sort of achieved or not achieved a task or goal.) going through all the supplementary goals and the main vision. We agreed that almost all of our supplementary points had been addressed and successfully reach. The only point we had to label with a yellow sticky was supplementary goal three: “uninhibited play time”. The main reason was that we could fully commit to agreeing that our team provided uninhibited play time during our interactive lectures. Starting from a vague point and being able to agree on a set of realistic goals for achieving “Creative Engagement” was no easy task, yet our team was dedicated and skilled enough to sculpt an actionable skeleton framework for achieving it. Since only part of our team was present in the ideation of the map, the rest of the team felt like they had no ownership of the ideas established in the first map meeting. This led to differences in direction with the future maps.
PLAY TEAM
PLAY TEAM
GAME PLAN
First, we reviewed our previous map to make certain every step forward we took was from the view of that map. Second, key points were made with regards to each goal and we came up with the five steps that would be actionable:
1. Design Education
-Crafting each lecture so students learn through games.
2. Play
-Make sure the games are engaging.
3. Step out of the Comfort Zone -Making games encompass everyone in the class.
4. Experiment
-Try different gamification methods to see what’s best.
5. Iterate
-Document game experiences in order to use best practices. Each Bold Step was further fleshed out by adding different aspects associated with each step, success factors were noted for each step as well. Each step was carefully analyzed and thought out through several avenues. Play
Play team’s Game Plan.
EVALUATION
team had a strong framework for achieving its main target.Finally we went over the challenges associated with each step. The process we went through was indepth and taking many aspects of our vision into account, making this a very time consuming portion. The reason it was more time consuming than the others was due to the fact that the first map wasn’t ideated by the whole group, only a portion of us.Our team executed each step exactly as we had agreed upon. Every week, there was a game prepared for the class by select students. We analyzed games, recorded data and moved towards best practices. Had we began the first map together, there would have been a more cohesive thought involved with this map.
PLAY TEAM
PLAY TEAM
ROAD MAP
The first step was looking back at our two previous maps and finding our actionable steps. We really drew upon the second map for finding out each step since it was our “actionable” plan. Once we had all the steps, we set up a grid with one dimension being time periods and the other being activities. Each activity was given a start point and deadline, but since many of our activities were iterative; they expanded across the entire quarter. The road map process helped us in that each activity was designated with an owner. These owners were taking a part of actionable responsibility so it empowered our team with a sense of ownership for each section. This made the work for each member, not only more doable, but also less stressful.
Play team’s Road Map.
EVALUATION
The roadmap focused on the charrette and the visioning workshops as large checkpoints in our timeline, yet we had little interaction with the teams in charge for facilitating their games. The issue is that if we had an easy to read interface with all our games, the other teams could have easily taken data from us. Everything was completed on time in regards to the play team. While some of our goals were pretty ambitious, we feel as if we were able to touch upon many of the key activities and goals necessary to meet our vision. Through achieving these goals we also mitigated many of the challenges involved with them.
PLAY TEAM
PLAY TEAM
DETAILED DESIGN DOCUMENT Play Team Detailed Design Document.
PLAY TEAM
Close up of Play team’s Road Map.
PLAY TEAM Brittney Boudwin Dionis Carter Luyao Cheng Eva Dunn Sandra Montalvo Jose Paez
PLAY TEAM
CHARETTE TEAM The Charrette team was in charge of planning and executing the first client workshop with NOAA. Their focus with the planning section was designing an all day workshop with interactive activities for the client to ideate a possible opportunity for their problem. The Charrette Team used findings documented by the Play Team to design the most positive interactive activities. Choosing the games for the day was only a section of their focus. In executing their design, the Charrette team also had to delegate tasks for the rest of the class during the first workshop and coordinated the timeline for the day. Brittney and Zach at charette planning session.
CHARETTE TEAM
CHARETTE TEAM
5 BOLD STEPS Completing the this first map was crucial in understanding the role of the Charrette team in the class.
Laying out what each member of the team thought about the goal helped us consolidate it into a unified thought and verify our central vision. Once we established the central vision for our team, we were able to break it down into six supporting visions that we placed around the center. With the central vision stated, and supported by six pillars, we agreed on “5 Bold Steps” we would need to take as a group in order to achieve that vision. With our vision clear, and our 5 bold steps the final portion of the map was figuring out what could support our vision and what would challenge it. The “supports” and “challenges” were posted one the outer sides of the vision.
Charette team’s Visioning Map.
EVALUATION
In retrospect, if we would have made the content more specific and accurate it would have avoided future repeated work. There is no need to pay too much attention to the aesthetic quality of the map, but instead by focusing on the content specified for our team was fundamental for the future maps. Due to this specificity, we feel as if we did a great job in the Charette day. The structure that was made from our team achieved success in encouraging our clients and, on our end, learning a lot about how to be a good facilitator.
CHARETTE TEAM
CHARETTE TEAM
GAME PLAN
To properly fill out this map, our team felt we had to review the first map to remind ourselves where we primarily saw our vision. We took the main vision and supporting vision and began to define targets and relative goals to each one. This gave us a grander scale of our vision because we were able to see it on a larger scale. Once we did that, we refined each of our initial 5 bold steps and organized them in the order in which they would need to be achieved to reach our main vision. Each step was explored more deeply; our team was able to craft a framework for each bold step to give it structure which facilitated our execution of each step. For the “Game Plan” process we used post its to write our thoughts individually; this helped each team member share their inputs. Rearranging and discussing all the aspects of our vision helped us to define our map.
Charette team’s Game Plan.
EVALUATION
After progressing through, we realize we might need to add more descriptions about each task. By making it more clear for everyone, even those who are not in this team, to understand the meaning of our steps.Sharing our map earlier would have provided clarity for the other teams working on the project, this would have streamlined workload closer to the Charrette day. While we did excellent teamwork, more transparent work for the rest of the class would have been better for the other groups.
CHARETTE TEAM
CHARETTE TEAM
ROAD MAP
The first step was looking back at our two previous maps and finding our actionable steps. The final map was for setting a timetable to all of the structured steps we created in the last map. To start this map, our team determined a time period for the class and how each activity would fall into that determined time period. Once the time period was set, we decided on milestones that would need to be reached chronologically throughout our map. The milestones would serve as guides for our group throughout the timeline of the class. Now that each activity has a timeslot, a group member is assigned to their own respective activity. Having a group member assigned to an activity will give them a sense of ownership and help ensure it’s completion.
Charette team’s Road Map.
EVALUATION
The Road Map, as a timeline for team charette, was a success. We were flexible with the map but maintained its integral structure, keeping with allotted milestones.It was a great help in thinking through each and every task that was needed to take place. It helps us to avoid some unessential problems. If possible we may consider more about the whole class as a big team for charette day.We didn’t keep tracking this map when our class works together because we had a big schedule for everybody working together.
CHARETTE TEAM
CHARETTE TEAM
DETAILED DESIGN DOCUMENT Charette Detailed Design Document.
CHARETTE TEAM
Charette team working on their Game Plan.
CHARETTE TEAM Brittney Boudwin Dionis Carter Luyao Cheng Lin Jiang Zach Nilsson Han Tian
CHARETTE TEAM
VISIONING TEAM The Strategic Visioning team was in charge of planning and executing the second client workshop with NOAA. The Strategic Visioning team relied on the results and insights from the Charrette to have the most positive output in the second workshop. The insights from how the clients interacted with each game in the charrette were a basis in choosing the games for the Visioning workshop. In executing their design, the visioning team also had to delegate tasks for the rest of the class during the first workshop and coordinated the timeline for the day.
Lin, Sandra, and Zach working on their Visioning Map.
STRATEGIC VISIONING TEAM
VISIONING TEAM
5 BOLD STEPS Our process of creating this map was to first write down our individual visions of what success would look and feel like at the end of our client engagement (visioning workshop). We then presented and compared our visions and forged them together into one collective vision or goal. This goal was to empower our clients embrace their creativity and learn how to utilize it in their decision process, “the empowerment of dream - make - do”. Once this collective vision was realized, we then began to think of what bold steps for success would be to in order to reach our vision and what values had to be present throughout the entire process. These “Bold Steps” were as followed:
1. Understand who is sitting at the table 2. Find a vehicle for engagement 3. Provoke multiple perspectives 4. Creating a No “Flex” Zone 5. Crown design champions By going through this process we were able to successfully identify both challenges that could/would be present during the engagement as well as what supports could be
Visioning team’s Visioning Map.
EVALUATION
present, introduced, or leveraged. Throughout the first half of this class our group/team did a good job at referring to and persuading others to consider key aspects that were portrayed on this map. However, as we entered into the first client engagement, we began to focus primarily on the crafting and execution of the Charette and less on what we had indicated on our map. Even though our focus had changed slightly when shifting from theory to practice, we were still able to keep a sizable sum of what it was that we wanted to accomplish with us. This was primarily due to our successful in depth discussions of how we wanted to proceed with this class. These discussions were enabled by and focused around this map building process. However, If we were to go through this process again in the future, one thing that we could do differently would be: allow our minds to drift into the clouds and be open to more possibilities when thinking of the vision. It can be hard to let loose when going through a strategy session, but for this part in particular we need to be more open to the notion of allowing our emotions get into the driver seat.
STRATEGIC VISIONING TEAM
VISIONING TEAM
GAME PLAN
First, we reviewed our previous map to make certain every step forward we took was from the view of that map. On the target we put our vision in the center and around all of the individual things we wanted to accomplish with our client, ranging them most important towards the center. Fort the arrow, we divided it into 5 vertical sections. The “Bold Step” was listed at the top of its section, the goal of achieving each step at the bottom, and a few of the things that would have to do in order to get there. By going through this mapping process, we were able to put ourselves in a good mental state that allowed us to adapt to the situation when needed during our facilitation. It also helped build a common understanding of what each team member wanted to accomplish, building trust and comfort in speaking our minds. A big positive of doing this map was that we had already done this step in our minds and had been discussing it with one another before ever beginning the map, making it an almost effortless transition.
Visioning team’s Game Plan.
EVALUATION
It would have been nice if we had established some sort of checkpoint or “stoplights” along the way to make sure we were following what we originally felt was necessary. Originally we felt that we had followed our “Game Plan” fairly well and were on a good track, but when looking back at it after the visioning workshop for the “stoplight” reflection activity, we found it to be quite a different story. We found that we had somewhat neglected some of our original guidelines. Not that we ignored them, but they were somehow lost through the development and delivery phases of the client engagement. Even though this map wasn’t brought back into the class discussions as we moved forward, we as a group should have devised some sort of feedback loop system to help us keep on track.
STRATEGIC VISIONING TEAM
VISIONING TEAM
ROAD MAP
The first step was looking back at our two previous maps and finding our actionable steps. We really drew upon the second map for finding out each step since it was our “actionable” plan. Once we had all the steps, we set up a grid with one dimension being time periods and the other being activities. Each activity was given a start point and deadline, but since many of our activities were iterative; they expanded across the entire quarter. The road map process helped us in that each activity was designated with an owner. These owners were taking a part of actionable responsibility so it empowered our team with a sense of ownership for each section. This made the work for each member, not only more doable, but also less stressful.
Visioning team’s Road Map.
EVALUATION
The roadmap focused on the charrette and the visioning workshops as large checkpoints in our timeline, yet we had little interaction with the teams in charge for facilitating their games. The issue is that if we had an easy to read interface with all our games, the other teams could have easily taken data from us. Everything was completed on time in regards to the play team. While some of our goals were pretty ambitious, we feel as if we were able to touch upon many of the key activities and goals necessary to meet our vision. Through achieving these goals we also mitigated many of the challenges involved with them.
STRATEGIC VISIONING TEAM
VISIONING TEAM
DETAILED DESIGN DOCUMENT
STRATEGIC VISIONING TEAM
STRATEGIC VISIONING TEAM
Zach Tyler and Sandra during a visioning workshop planning session.
VISIONING TEAM Tyler Leppek Sandra Montalvo Zach Nilsson Jose Paez Mark Hemphill
STRATEGIC VISIONING TEAM
PRODUCTION TEAM The Production team’s focus was properly documenting the class’ efforts during the meetings and workshops. With their documentation came the next part of their focus; the design and execution of a process book describing our combined efforts and results. During workshops, the team would video tape, take pictures and scribe notes of activities. Each Production team member was also part of a secondary team in which they would record ideation sessions for their respective meetings.
Han taking photos for Production team at the visioning workshop.
PRODUCTION TEAM
PRODUCTION TEAM
5 BOLD STEPS For the Five Bold Steps map we looked at the various aspects and wrote them down in our own words.
Then we found overlaps and patterns and worked with that information. When we were three a group of three, it was a lot easier to communicate. But we did somehow subconsciously fulfill them. We also learned a lot about translation and finding the best and new words to describe things.We gave the overall goal a Yellow. Production team fulfilled their individual goals rather well, and the spirit of the actions until now, have been well created. But we also haven’t finished the video and book, so we cannot measure if it is going to come out to our goal.
Production team’s Visioning Map.
EVALUATION
Looking back on our process, we just had a hard time getting started; trying to get together as a group of six was always hard and never really happened. We all seemed to appreciate one another’s talents. Everyone documented our class’ process really well, documented worthwhile and insightful interviews, took plenty of pictures to work with. Even though we executed the documentation aspect of our team, we should have met a great deal more.
PRODUCTION TEAM
PRODUCTION TEAM
GAME PLAN For the Game Plan we broke down our old poster and the entities to help find help accomplish each entity and the final end goal.
We talked everything out, and created steps to for goal levels. This was a great tool for us to get to know one another along with deciding the outcome of our team in the class. Our role of overseeing all the needs of the process book and video helped us to claim roles giving us a purpose in the class and knowing how we could contribute. We wanted to create a positive one, so promoted that in all of our steps. It was a great way for us to get on the same page with one another.
Production team’s Game Plan.
EVALUATION
Yellow was our main performance color as we were still in the production process. Each one of us had roles and responsibilities. As they were performed in the class, the charette, and visioning workshop, we all did well and what we were supposed to. Our main goal has yet to be fulfilled and cannot be measured. However, we probably should have met more so that we could roll with the punches. As more details came about in the class, we needed to integrate in more detail.
PRODUCTION TEAM
PRODUCTION TEAM
ROAD MAP
Our process for creating the “Road Map” was that we pulled out the first two posters and broke them down. We used them to create goals for our part. We assigned due dates for one another and a process for completing these goals. We could have considered assigning roles to people outside of the group so that content could have been done on a week to week basis. Our plan has changed since it went from being the six of us doing production to 12 of us.
Production team’s Road Map.
PRODUCTION TEAM
Mark and Luyoa working on Production team’s Road Map.
PRODUCTION TEAM Eva Dunn Mark Hemphill Tyler Leppek Jian Shi Han Tian Honorable Mention: Zach Nilsson Brittney Boudwin Sandra Montalvo
PRODUCTION TEAM
TEAM FEEDBACK
Team feedback of the two client engagements was gathered using the “Thiagi 6 Questions of Reflection” to visualize their past, present, and future state of being.
“We did what we could to aid the client.”
Thiagi’s 6 Questions of Reflection. Facilitated by Brittney and Zach
“Next for me is more self reflection to truly internalize what I’ve learned in order to incopporate it into my thesis research, future career (career success, application is next ).”
“‘Doing’ is a painful process for a lot of people.”
“What if I used these skills to make a difference within my industry or without?”
“In real life, I’m not always doing things that I like, but when I put myself into it...challenge myself...I learn more.”
“Learn to be patient and focused longer, live health and take exercises to stay energetic.”
CLIENT FEEDBACK
After working with the client to finalize their Action Plan, we asked them to asnwer some key questions about our interactions in order for the class to reflect and learn about what we did well and what we can do better in the future. •What did I expect? •What did receive? •What did I appreciate? •What did I want more of? •Do you have any additional feedback?
Client feedback. Alison.
Client feedback. Cathy.
Client feedback. Sarah.