Design_at_the_edge

Hydroptere: extreme self-actualisation

  Hydroptere 
  Originally uploaded by egral

The Mail on Sunday included an article We have lift off: The quickest yacht in the world. Extract here:
Is it a boat? is it a plane? No - it's something in between, that also happens to be very, very fast. Ian Stafford goes flying on the quickest yacht in the world
"This is not a boat, nor a plane either. This is a magical flying carpet,2 says Alain Thébault, the man behind the Hydroptère, the world's fastest yacht.
There's magic in the air even as we cast off from the Breton port of La Trinité-sur-Mer, overlooked by the ancient stones of Carnac, France's own Stonehenge.
There's a flurry of strenuous hoisting and winding as the wind balloons the sails. The craft begins to accelerate.
It cuts the waves faster and faster, the nose begins to lift… and then we're flying.
It just keeps on going faster.
The only sound from the sea beneath is the single hydrofoil blade cutting through the waves like a sword.
Its far end shimmers underwater; thunderclouds of spray fill the air in its wake.
Hydroptère throws up more water than a hundred jet-skis, but in total silence – except when the crew whoop for joy.
This extraordinary trimaran is the result of 20 years of research, engineering and design, plus substantial backing from Swiss banker Thierry Lombard.
It's a yacht made from carbon fibre and titanium that rises up on to "wings".
Instead of ploughing through the waves, it glides over them.
Once up to speed, only one of two hydrofoils at the end of each outer keel actually touches the sea. The drag is almost negligible. This is why it has already set two world speed records, over a nautical mile and 500m, and why it'll continue to redefine yachting speeds as we know them this summer. Watch out for the reports.
and the article ends
Hydroptère is a personal obsession, a life's work born of one man's dream – but now that it's on the verge of breaking every record that matters, there are plenty of potential buyers.
Does Thébault know how much the project has cost? "No," he replies.
"With all the adjustments and innovations it's very difficult to say. I'd say many millions of euros."
Would he ever sell? "We have had a few people approach us, but I have not even waited for a price, nor offered one, and discussions never take place."
Why not? Thébault smiles and lets out another whoop of joy as Hydroptère nudges past 40 knots again and the Quiberon peninsula flashes by.
"There are some things in life no amount of money can ever buy," he explains, with a broad grin. "You cannot put a price on living a dream."

If we refer to Maslow we can see that the yacht is all about the satisfaction of Alain Thébault's need for self-actualisation. He is incredibly fortunate to have, since 2006, sponsorship from Swiss banker Thierry Lombard. As the official site puts it

Born in 1962, under the sign of Virgo, half-mad or half-wise depending on the tides, Alain Thébault once had a dream: creating a flying boat. In the sailing world, there are many Ulysses. Sailors are cunning people who know how to make it through the tempest and to use a bit of cunning with the technical and human elements in order to survive. But Alain Thébault is the only living Icarus among the oceanic skippers. He possesses a fever for invention, a scorn for danger and the need to burn himself under every sun. The skipper of l’Hydroptère, the “flying boat”, is a misunderstood person who likes nothing better than rile the crowds who doubt him. He is also a determined man who would fall 10 times and get back up 100 times. Finally, he is an agitator who has burnt his wings many times by provoking the anger in the political and business spheres.
Pilote d’un rêve (Piloting a Dream), Alain Thébault,
Flammarion  March 2005, Libération

Maslow can play out at two extremes- 

a utilitarian view:

“If the only tool we have is a hammer then we tend to see every problem as a nail.”

Or a symbolic one:

“Excellence is the result of

caring more than others think is wise;

risking more than others think is safe;

dreaming more than others think is feasible and expecting more than other people think is possible.”

[draft]

This is much harder than it looks

  This is much harder than it looks 
  Originally uploaded by Bitterjug

"People are much more likely to act their way into a new way of thinking, than think their way into a new way of acting."
wrote Richard T. Pascale in his book Delivering Results, (pub: 1999), reinforcing Peter Senge's thoughts about the Learning Model documented in The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (pub. 1994).  Senge writes about Practice Fields summarised here:
 

LEARNING LABORATORIES. The vision guiding research in management learning laboratories (or "micro-worlds") is to design and construct effective practice fields for management teams --constructed microcosms of real-life settings in which management teams can learn how to learn together. This concept can best be explained by analogy. In many domains, such as sports and performing arts, team learning is the norm, rather than the exception. For example, a great symphony orchestra performs well only after extensive practice. It is impossible to imagine a chamber music ensemble learning without rehearsal. Yet that is exactly what we expect to occur in our organisations. In organizations, this continual movement between practice and performance is rare and must be created to help organizational teams learn.
 

In order to think about something, it is necessary to convert the input (sensory impressions, concepts, experiences, etc.) into symbols that stand for what you have sensed. All words are symbols, and as such are abstractions. They often have different meanings to different people and can lead to vague, ambiguous understandings. For a team to build a shared vision they must have a shared understanding, an awareness of the meaning the words they use. Some important words have almost as many definitions as the number of people you ask; words like insight innovation,design and creativity definitely fall into this category. So I searched for definitions that I am, at this moment in time, happy with (not necessarily comfortable with)  and that help challenge my observation and interpretation of conventional wisdom. The definitions are posted here.

Bill Jensen's research (in Simplicity) writes that to take different actions we need to find answers to 5 questions:

How is this relevant to what I do?
What, specifically, should I do?
How will I be measured, and what are the consequences?
What tools and support are available?
WIIFM- What's in it for me? for us?

... the most frequently asked question is the one on tools. Jensen continues "Between two-thirds and three-quarters of us are missing the tools or skills we need to successfully do everything that comes at us. But this is an average.. change agents and executives rarely believe tools and support are an issue.

Hopefully the World has moved on since Jensen's original researches but the questions are still relevant

These behavioural questions become , for  CLEAR communication designed to inspire action:

Connected to what I do
List of next steps
Expectations
Ability
Return

Once again it can be the risk factors that reduce the capability of change taking place; which is where the protected play space comes into its own enabling individuals and groups to rehearse new language, new approaches and behaviours in a safer environment; which is a little like ensemble theatre work.. where initial read-through of the text, rehearsals are used to explore, articulate a common vision, and develop an experience (rehearsal; alpha mode); beta test at previews with real 'consumers'; reflect and if necessary tweak before the first night. Of course you could just pick up the play; read the stage instructions, learn and do... what the audience think is a delightfully new experience.. even if the play itself is not new ...context  ...style ...interpretation!

Picture uploaded on by jhritz. Used with thanks under CC.

... so maybe this is what Michael Schrage meant by behaviour around prototypes and iterative capital! Combined with Tudor Rickard's 7 factors characterising  Dream Teams

1. Strong platform of understanding
2. Shared vision
3. Creative climate
4. Ownership of ideas
5. Resilience to setbacks
6. Network activators
7. Learn from experience

and Hilarie Owen's 3 Success Factors

- the level of effort group members put in collectively in carrying out the task;

- the amount of knowledge and skill members bring to the team task;

- the appropriateness of the performance strategies or procedures used by the team in its work to achieve the task"

To enable activity that leads to change in how we do things and what comes out of that (team) activity

(innovation in process and product) we need to ensure that we make available to people the tools and techniques needed to create simplicity, space and self-confidence to deliver innovation at speed.

 

But trying to change and innovate at the same time is weirdly both much easier and much harder than it looks, at the same time, leading to mixed messages back from the team:
"So, you see, it turns out learning to change is much, much harder than it looks, which is why I've been up late every night this week."
 

I'm not sure why, but I know that at the team meetings I attend, people start but then drop out quickly because it's much harder than it looks."

Picture uploaded on by troismarteaux. Used with thanks under CC.
This is where a facilitator/coach can be useful. As one innovation facilitator observed,
"People get discouraged quickly, but I promise if they stay with it, they won't have any regrets," he added. "It's like anything else. You just have to work at it to be good."

Is an ensemble approach the key to Apple's success?

  ipod nano 
  Originally uploaded by henry hank

I was reading the red dot design yearbook 2006/2007  yesterday which included this judging panel comment

"It continues the language of form into a new multimedia age, where it goes without saying that different multimedia applications can be connected to one another and that the storage medium can be carried in a pocket, taking it anywhere one goes."

and came across this paragraph from the Apple Design Team in 2006/7:
 

'The Aesthetics of the iPod nano.'
"The iPod nano is a full-featured iPod that holds up to 1,000 songs. It is thinner than a #2 pencil and is made from stainless steel and twin-shot polycarbonate. Its design is informed by our preoccupation with the materials and processes of manufacture." 

In the book Icon talking about Apple Steve said,

”The system is that there is no system.” Then he added, “That doesn’t mean that we don’t have a process.” Making the distinction between process and system allows for a certain amount of fluidity, spontaneity, and risk, while at the same time it acknowledges the importance of defined roles and discipline."

In Innovation is the new black Jared Spool writes

Understanding the user experience isn't new. It's something designers and researchers have done for years. However, because it's linked to innovation and innovation is now an important corporate objective, its value has increased.

Now organizations realize they have to study how users currently experience their products and service. From this, they derive insights into how to make improvements and those improvements go into the design the teams aspire to achieve.

Fixing the MP3 Mess

Before Apple introduced the first iPod in 2001, there were dozens of MP3 players on the market. Most of them had flash-memory hardware that could only hold a handful of songs, often 10 to 20 at most, with hard to use interfaces and tiny displays.

In 2001, there were several PC music management programs available. However, their interface to the various MP3 players seemed almost an afterthought, convoluted and inconsistent. Simple features, such as playlist support, were non-existent, since each player's support varied so widely.

Users, wanting new music on their player, needed to purchase an entire CD album, even if they were only interested in a single song. Once purchased, putting the music on the machine was extremely difficult, requiring many steps and several different interfaces to "rip" the music, transfer it to the player, and subsequently listen to the music -- all made by different companies with radically different commands and displays.

The difficulty of getting music from the CDs to the player encouraged users to look at online libraries of already encoded music. Why go through the effort of ripping your own CDs when someone has probably done it before? The popularity of music libraries, such as Napster and Kazaa soared, as did the temptation to upload music the user hadn't paid for.

Apple's iPod Insight

Apple's designers could see something better emerging from this mess. They imagined a future where music listeners could find the specific song they wanted, click a single button and the system would instantly purchase the music, download it, and transfer it to the player, ready to listen to.

The hardware had to be easy to use. A long-playing battery, crisp lcd display, simple controls, and sleek design was all part of their vision. The PC software would know about the hardware's features and seamlessly make the interface flow.

The 99-cent-per-song price point for music was as much part of the new experience as the hardware design. Picking and choosing just those songs the listener wants to own, without getting songs they aren't interested in, makes it easy for people to build a personal collection they love. Moreover, the slick design of the unit makes it more likely people will gloat about their new player.

While it took several years for the vision to realize itself fully, the new customer experience emerged to change the way music is sold. Apple, once a hardware company, now is realizing more than $1 billion every year just through the sales of the songs in the music store. Innovation took Apple into the leadership position of an established industry in less than three years.

So we can see that Apple are actually looking at the user experience and how it can be radically enhanced.

Picture uploaded  by Perfecto Insecto. Used with thanks under CC.

Looking at the yearbook for 2007 the next nano commentary includes:

"With integration of the iTunes software, the user can purchase songs, audio books and podcasts in the iTunes Store and synchronise the iPod with the user’s Mac or PC."

And looking in the red dot design yearbook 2006/2007 we can see a picture of the team that brought us the iPod nano.... or is it an ensemble?

 

 

 

The Art of Seduction

  DSCN5092 
  Originally uploaded by qhienle

On the way home this afternoon I heard a radio interview featuring Dr Raj Persaud who has written a book entitled "Simply Irresistible: The Psychology of Seduction - How to Catch and Keep Your Perfect Partner "
He talked of Casanova and his seductive adventures... the first being to attract and win an actress who cannot pronounce her R's. He writes a play for her that does not contain words with the letter R and so wins her attention. Dr Persaud points out that Casanova has identified and filled an unmet need and the offer of a play addresses her fundamental needs-

To be regarded as unique and being worth it (in this case writing a play for her).

He could have offered to pay for elocution lessons but that would have been to accuse her of being flawed and in need of improvement before he could regard her as 'interesting'.

In the same way products and service offers can insult you or seduce you, or ....

From  uk - charlie: Picture link (all rights reserved).

can be incubators for the human spirit.

The message is clear...  empathic solutions to people's unmet needs yield seductive products that the consumer will stay engaged with longer. Even simple products can be redesigned to present a new perspective...

The eva solo Aromagic carafes are a featured winner in Red Dot 2006. Here is an extract

For refined tastes
Trying to define the essence of "functionality" is not easy - both its efficacy and human perception are far too complex.

Finishing....

Aromagic carafes, too, is an interesting feature of intelligent functionality: it solves both the problem of constant dripping and the difficulties of pouring the right amount of oil or vinegar without having it end up on the table or even the table-cloth. Due to a kind of stop mechanism, the pouring spout pours cleanly and precisely. With their highly specific aesthetics, these carafes along with the matching dressing shaker, are the expression of a well thought-out and intelligent functionality - thus, in a figurative sense, they also represent the scenarios of "refined taste".

So putting all this together I wonder whether Apple and organisations like them (in the innovation sense) are in fact combining a sensitivity to the consumer's unmet needs, emerging technologies, supply chain possibilities and excellent communication to arrive at excellent products and services that enable winning, seductive even, experiences? ...and are they using an ensemble approach to creating those experiences?

The Apple Design Team (ensemble?) on a page from red dot design yearbook 2006/2007.

 

Can't innovate. Don't innovate. Go nowhere.’

high wire 2
Originally uploaded by _gee_

Sir George Cox has stated that in Britain

"We don't understand the relevance of design, suffer from lack of imagination and aren't ambitious enough.”

Yet if we look at the spend on design it is evident that whilst many organisations invest in design they do not see a significant return for it, which is hardly an incentive for them to continue, or for others to take the plunge themselves, which explains why Sir George suggests that our mantra is

"Can't innovate. Don't innovate. Go nowhere."

A key strategic role of design is making ideas tangible, telling the story of alternative futures, and defining the actual products and services to make those stories become experiences. therefore, it should be a strategic imperative that we use appropriate technologies, techniques and capabilities of design in the most effective way, maximising the return on our innovation investment. Yet, as we have said,many organisations invest in design through in-house resources or external agencies, without gaining much traction. I remember talking to an advanced projects team that were tasked with coming up with longer-term radical solutions and their complaint was that they're projects were judged by the same criteria as near term incremental projects which meant they didn't stand a chance. The project leader observed:

"Our project teams have previously carried out work creating visions of the future and identifying new customer opportunities, which has generated a substantial amount of new ideas. However we have lacked a process to convert these creative ideas into radical new concepts and prototypes that are tangible expressions of business opportunities and marketable products. We need to develop processes that support fledgling ideas and enable breakthrough ideas to be realised. A key issue is to work differently across all our disciplines (such as Research, Design, Development, Manufacturing, Marketing, Human Resources, partners and sub-contractors) as a continuum in order to deliver inspiring solutions to the marketplace that pack a  sustainable competitive clout.

In a nutshell, ideas must be allowed to break through barriers and present themselves to decision makers.“

Picture uploaded by sekimura. Used with thanks under CC.

Several challenges are contained in this statement that are essential to delivering a sustainable stream of winning new products and services. These challenges include better up-front design processes that support the emergence of more substantial concepts that are not killed by an inappropriate response to the uncertainty that is often the outcome of conventional risk management techniques. Collaboration between specialist disciplines that enable concepts to be assessed against the capabilities available in-house and outside. stronger links between strategic intent and project ambitions. Working differently means adopting different tools or adapting those we already have to achieve different ends.

Picture uploaded by MoonSoleil . Used with thanks under CC.

Collaboration:

If we look in a dictionary we will find it is defined as:

1. A joint intellectual effort

2. Treasonable cooperation with an enemy

Derived from: (Latin) com (with) + laborare (work) = work together

To elaborate is to extend an idea; to co-laborate is to do so with partners.

The problem is, that in the past conventional business models assumed the second definition was more likely to be true and so information was closely guarded and so no leverage came from sharing and discussing it.

Picture uploaded by fatal Cleopatra . Used under CC.

Real collaboration involves being open and frank, sharing information and knowledge to maximise the opportunity for the whole team to co-create motivating insights and a common vision of a winning product or service. We need to set our radicals free and be bold enough to reveal all our cards at the beginning of the process when maximum leverage is derived from the act of sharing.

Picture uploaded by ralphunden . Used with thanks under CC.

Today we must approach design from a different perspective. Truly sustainable design is based on a wide range of complex criteria; human experience, social, global, economic and political issues; physical and mental interaction, form, vision, and a rigorous understanding of contemporary culture. Manufacturing is based on another collective group of criteria: capital investment, market share, ease of production, dissemination, growth, distribution, maintenance and service, performance, quality, ecological issues and sustainability. Services are delivered through the application of products by the service providers. Experiences evolve where these services are the stage and products are used as props to engage the people. The combination of all these issues- of validity for our consumers and viability for our organisations- has come to shape our objects, informs our aesthetic, our physical space and culture, and our human experiences.(apologies to Karim Rashid)

To achieve great products, services and experience collaboration between all the key players needs to go up a gear and really engage in creating something special because of their knowledge and expertise and despite their functional positions and organisational loyalties. But if all the top team are not committed to changing the process of creating new 'stuff' then both definitions of collaboration might come into play with functional heads seeing collaboration as an act of disloyalty. But designing something memorable for the consumer may be all we have left to differentiate ourselves from the competition... and that means people discovering, adopting and exploiting processes, technologies and techniques to  collaborate effectively across barriers between all the people who can produce something special.


Picture uploaded by Yodel Anecdotal. Used with thanks under CC.

"In a world of largely saturated markets and many alternatives, astonishing the customer [through superior design] is the path to exceptional growth." -- Robert Heller, marketing guru

The crafting of skills for the future

  iStock_000005222864Small 
  Originally uploaded by IC Pod

I happened to tune into today's (6th February) "Thinking Allowed" on BBC Radio4 to hear Laurie Taylor discuss attitudes to craftwork and skill with sociologist Richard Sennett author of The Craftsman and Grayson Perry artist and potter.  I've downloaded the podcast to listen again.

It struck a chord with me as I have just completed writing a piece with a brief:

"to share their [the authors] opinions and knowledge as part of an article series, which considers the experience of transition within the context of the creative and cultural industries. Individual articles will focus on rites of transition within the sector - such as employment to self-employment – as well as theoretical and practical responses to challenges arising from change.(750 words)"

and the piece had to be submitted by the end of January.

The start of December found me deciding to write about the new roles necessary, in organisations of whatever size, to drive up the levels of creativity and the skills needed to underpin their continuing survival and growth. I used Visimap (reviewed here)as the tool to allow me to flit about as ideas, phrases, quotes, etc. occurred to me and by Christmas Eve had a presentable draft based on this map:

Just one challenge- it was about 1250 words long! Still let the words stew over the break and I'll see what comes to me by the New Year.

So getting back into the swing of things on 7th January I found an email chiding me for not submitting my piece on time and giving me a revised deadline of 11th! Panic....sit down and start ruthless editing. Does this sentence add to story or is it waffle? can I find duplication? Can I find a shorter more succinct phrasing? By Tuesday lunch I had a final draft that I was comfortable with   ...and (this is a first!) 750 words long. Emailed it... then checked email ... one from commissioning organisation apologising... I am in second wave of requests that don't need to be in until end of month.. Hey! i am ahead of schedule! A few days later I get a request to delete the "What do I mean by" branch and expand my description of roles... this results in a map that looks like this:

Now 753 words long! About a week later I have a telephone discussion with the managing editor and she asked me to put a paragraph or two in justifying the logical development of theses roles to inspire the two reader groups... new graduates starting their careers and leaders in industry responding to the need for change. I said " No way I can do that in 750 words total!". She replied " No matter, we have learned a great deal as we developed the brief from our client!"

Two hours later I had revised the start of the story to reflect its potential readership

The third and final map looks like this:

and has 991 words!

So what has this to do with "Thinking Allowed"? Well during the programme they talked of the instant culture leading to a down-skilling of people as they are not prepared to spend the 10,000 hours honing their craft (which equals a 5 year apprenticeship). Skill, they say, is being equated to a procedure where we can tick the box

rather than an ongoing process of doing 'x' better. Acquiring a skill is different from mastering one when one feels comfortable and fluid with their use.

Well although I am an engineer and designer by profession my competence comes from skillsets that are adjacent to my original discipline (mechanical engineering). I have used Visimap for years having been introduced to mindmapping at a time management workshop around 1987... here is a mindmap to plan out work priorities in 1995.

...and I have steadily expanded uses for it, such as project planning.. linking Visimap to MSProject, presentation storyboarding linking to Beyond BulletPoints technique.

As Richard Sennett puts it " Look, question something in particular, acquire adjacent skills to make it happen"..."skill building lies in the gap between thinking and doing."

So In spite of the excitements of creating a 750 word thought-piece it was my long use and play with tools that enabled me to deliver.

The link to the article is here [insert when published].

Presence: Paris Cafe- Manchester Cafe

Paris _ From Metro Cafe
Originally uploaded by ktylerconk

I remember, about 8 years ago, using my first hands-free (rare in those days) earpiece in my new Nokia Phone. I was on my way to a meeting in Manchester when a colleague, Chris, called me to check a few things on a project we were working on.
"Hello Chris. Where are you?" I said
"I'm just turning off the Champs Elysees on the way to a meeting I can see a cafe ahead .... can I stop and check a few things with you?"
"Okay, I am passing Waterstones bookshop and they have a coffeeshop so I'll go in there."
We carried on chatting and I arrived at the counter and asked "What are you drinking?" "Cappuccino," came the prompt reply. "I'll have the same... medium please." Double take from the barrista "Oh cappuccino, I mean" I responded and went to sit.
When the barrista delivered the coffee she looked at me quizzically and I said I was on the phone to my friend in a cafe in Paris and showed the earpiece. She smiled and I carried on with the Paris discussion.
I tell this as an insightful moment when I realised that roaming communication made "Where are you" a more useful opener than "How are you" of a fixed point receiver. Clues about where, and what you are up to are useful too.. (see example of 'Noises Off' here ).

I have been observing the technologies develop that enable mobile phone design evolution, the support infrastructures, camera image quality, application software, etc. that could enable a system to evolve, and it looks like it is almost here... not from the telecomms giants but from the computing industry.. Apple's iPhone, which is almost good enough, web browsing on said device and Jaiku (which is not yet on the device). So we almost have a product that delivers the right affordance for the consumer experience but not quite.. the experience is right for making a call, browsing the web and tantalisingly close for a collsborstive experience that I look for in a task oriented scenario. The feedback such as 'I love my iPhone but....bah no Jaiku!' from Tim O'Reilly could make sure the next iteration of iPhone moves in the 'right' direction. See also the diagram in the blog 'Technology trails to discover'

The intriguing thing here is how we make sure that the insight and ideas for a possible solution are acted on and not rejected. There are work arounds as the comments to Tim O'Reilly's blog discusses but they show there is a consumer problem to be fixed which means there is an valid innovation opportunity which needs to be prototyped to enable the viability to be established. So MAKE philosophy is part of the iterative capital Michael Schrage describes that enables teams to deliver meaningful innovative "things"- products, services, experiences. that are both valid for the consumer and viable for the providing organisation.

High Performing Teams

5 component technologies
Originally uploaded by IC Pod.

Five or six years ago I was fascinated by the amazing difference in the performance of project teams that were working on similar challenges. I had the chance to attend a workshop for 4 teams all starting out on new projects. they were of similar size and makeup and all reported to the same director. Within a month I could detect the different rates of progress and realised that I was seeing Tudor Rickard's theory of team performance unfold as I watched! In his book Handbook for Creative Team Leaders he and co-author, Susan Moger, talk of Teams from Hell, Standard Teams and Dream Teams.
I had been to his lecture at a Design Symposium earlier in the year where he explored the extremes which he called Teams from Hell and Heaven, which I have summarised on this slide:

Rickards builds on Tuckmans  4 (5)-stages of growth theory which he called The title picture summarises Peter Senge's work on Learning Organisations in his book The Fifth Discipline which says that for optimal learning one needs 5 key tools:

Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, (Adjourning)

The last stage is often neglected but the way teams are disbanded is also important for it affects the way people approach their next task.

At each stage a different set of behaviours are exhibited and so a different leadership style also applies which makes the job of successful delivery of the outcome so "exciting"!

The teams I was observing were all going on the journey through the stages. Some never got beyond the storming stage and never delivered a product worth launching (Rickards's Teams from Hell); another team delivered what seemed to be a great product but the consumer decided it was a mediocre innovation (Rickards's' Normal team that got to Norming, developing norms they used to guide their performing); One team delivered something unexpected and this was successful in the marketplace; they behaved as a high-performing Team from Heaven, or Dream Team; they got to norming, developed norms and then proceeded to challenge them as the project progressed.

Systems Thinking

Team Learning

Mental Models

Personal Mastery 

Building

Shared Vision 

So, building high performing teams is quite challenging... for innovative design teams the challenge is even greater as we are trying to catalyse change in organisation, creativity, leadership and followership....

it reminds me of that EDS advertising video "Herding Cats" which you can link to at Duncan's site

The choice of team members can itself constrain the future behaviour which can be further perturbed by training or the lack of for members and leaders. Hilarie Owen wrote a fascinating book called Creating Top flight Teams using the Red Arrows as the team exemplar

[picture used under Creative Commons Licence original uploaded by Bad Scooter ]

So I can say that when it comes to building innovative teams I totally agree with Bill Buxton's comment:

“You have to spend as much time directing your innovation and creativity to fostering a culture of creativity and a receptiveness to innovation as you spend on the ideas themselves.”

This is the real challenge facing business leaders as they exhort us to "Be more innovative." Are we going to be able to explain that we need to work differently to achieve the goals of

Simplicity - to reduce unnecessary complexity and to focus on delivering excellent consumer experiences.

Space - to expand the range of opportunities and to nurture great ideas.

Speed - of decision making and of time to market.

Self-confidence - to believe in consumer insights and to lead the market

by delivering big, bold consumer relevant products and services that deliver engaging experiences.