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Our world and our society are constantly changing
products and services are becoming more and more complex and sophisticated
new technologies are becoming a big part of our daily lives
we're also now confronting new challenges such as energy sustainability
or global warming
Our old ways of solving problems are becoming obsolete and due to the increasing
complexity of our needs and the problems our lifestyle generates
it is necessary now to take a holistic approach to problem solving
we're here defining a new term interdisciplinaryty or more
specifically interdisciplinary thinking
but what does that mean?
well, interdisciplinarity is the collaboration between different
disciplines or areas of the study
to achieve innovative solutions during the creation process
Although the creation process is not linear, we will assume here that it has
four different stages since they have different characteristics and also
a different approach to interdisciplinarity
These stages are: research, concept,
evaluation, and implementation
The research methodology can take many different shapes but it is always bonded
to the increase of knowledge of the subject.
The concept stage is where we use divergent thinking. We set free our minds
to come up with as many crazy ideas as possible
to later turn them into innovative solutions
or innovative ways of using old solutions
The evaluation studies the feasibility and narrows down
the possibilities using convergent thinking
the implementation is to take action and put into operation
the product or service
Here we need the specialists to develop the outcome
although still well organised, they can work more independently.
The evaluation process has traditionally been a multidisciplinary task
Now, it is during the research and concept stages where innovation is born, and therefore
where the different perspectives of the different disciplines are gaining more importance
It is here when inter-disciplinary thinking comes into action
Let's now think of different disciplines carrying out their work independently
they find a problem and they use the tools they have to solve it. But that is not enough
Usually projects are not only related just to one area of study
They can be analysed from the perspective of different disciplines
Let's now imagine the outcome as a jigsaw created by the input of the
different areas related to the project
if they're working independently they can only see the information related
to their piece of work
That can have two negative effects in the process.
It the pieces of work cannot be joint
It is a waste of time.
On the opposite hand, if their results are too similar, it's a waste of resources
If we get them to think all together from the beginning it will be easier
to think of the project as a whole
and to be more precise handling the resources and information
during the process
For all those reasons, it is now time to work
towards that interdisciplinary collaboration
and find out the way to make it effective.
It is necessary to develop a solid platform to enable this process
the first to step for that
is to identify the barriers that can come up during this sort of practices
Some of those difficulties are very similar to general teamwork obstacles
whereas others are more specific to inter-disciplinarity
In first place, it is important to be aware of the fact that
collaboration always happens between people therefore good
communication and understanding are vital for its success
Gathering different disciplines implies to bring together different perspectives
and when people feel strong about their ideas it's easy to pass
from discussion to argument
Therefore, it is very important that all the members take an open-minded and
respectful approached a discussion.
But that doesn't always happen. If the communication is not channelled
there will always be negative comments such as
"that wouldn't work" or "we don't do it that way"
There will be people molopolising the conversation and
trying to impose their ideas
Sometimes, two professionals can argue even saying the same
or a professional might not participate just because
he does not feel in control of the subject and is afraid of the others' reaction to his 'ignorance'
listening to others, sometimes,
seems to be really difficult
and it is then when parallel conversations
start to take place
or they can even leave the discussion, mentally or even physically
In order to assure the good progress of the dialogue it is necessary
the presence of an enabler: "a person who can channel that communication"
Apart from this enabler at the discussion table
during the research and concept stages. All the members
and their inputs are at the same level. All of them are equals
But carrying out a project does not only rely on thinking together
It would be naive to believe that at the evaluation stage
all the disciplines will have the same weight.
There are two main aspects of the team to be established
the member's contribution their roles within the team
People need to know what they're meant to do, how, who with, what for?
If those roles are not well distributed people tend to disperse their efforts
and lose track. The group might eventually achieve the result but
it will definitely entail a waste of resources
The lack of understanding in the contribution to be played is a
common cause of failure in interdisciplinary collaboration
For instance to believe that our input it will have a bigger impact
on the outcome that it will actually have
can damage the progress of the project and usually leads to frustration and
unnecessary competitiveness
All the members of the team are individuals with their own
background, goals, motivations and agenda
and it is important to identify what everyone expects to achieve
with their participation in the project
as well as to assure that those reasons fit into the global aims of the job
In a big project, it might happen that one discipline is
subordinated to the main domain
being used mostly as a tool, and without much voice in the over-all project
If this is not settled down from the beginning it is probable
to end up losing that collaboration
Another obstacle for the good dynamics of the team is the discrepancy between
self-perception and external perception
we take for granted that the people around us see and
understand our actions as we do
they can like it or not, but they see the same we do
but unfortunately that is not always the case and that difference of perception
can bring confusion and serious misunderstandings
but we found out something very interesting in our research
and it is that the team actually has a very solid opinion
about the rest of the members
If you ask individually to the members of the team
the personal and professional qualities of the rest of their colleagues
they will have a very similar opinions about their teammates
That leads to think that the team perception is right
whether that opinion matches with the self-perception or not
But why does that discrepancy happen? Well we can find several reasons for this fact.
In first place it might happen that
the self-perception is just wrong,
and our idea of how our behaviour does not match reality
It might also happen that our view of ourselves is based on a previous
experience which wasn't shared with the rest of the members
and therefore they cannot to use that information to form their judgement
finally it is also possible that our reasoning is not coming across and
people cannot work out the motivation of our actions. That's why
providing a framework for a feedback is so important
To finalise, just to say that interdisciplinary thinking as a
business strategy has a great potential
It is actually becoming a need because of the new challenges that our world
present and the obsolete way of problem solving we still use.
It is the best path to innovation and it can help us to save time and resources
It can be used in any sort of project, and in any sort of field,
as long as it is necessary to think
It is to be used at the beginning of the process,
in the research and concept stages.
Interdisciplinarity is a team activity and as we have seen
the communication and understanding are essential as well as
a good coordination of the roles and contributions of the different areas
We have also stated the importance of providing feedback
for the improvement of the team dynamics
Otherwise it has been also mentioned the need of an enabler
to channel that interaction between the team
Finally,
it is worth to point out that interdisciplinarity
is a great opportunity for designers
Design is one of the areas of study focused on provoking creativity
and specialized in the thinking process. Otherwise it is also an area
based on collaboration with a long experience in facilitation