Updates and Feedback
Yesterday (Feb 17) I talked to Ana about her Methods. She told me about what she had done and the tools she had made. She showed me her tools that she had gotten back from people, the photographs she took, and then began to tell about what she had observed. She seemed like she was just talking it out and running a few things past me, the same way Stuck does. So I mostly listened and asked a few questions. She seemed like she was really getting into it and seemed to be already narrowing in on some possible opportunities and problems. She also showed me the tools she was going to deploy next. So again I mostly listened and then I gave a couple of small suggestions to make the questions more open-ended to increase the possibility for responses that weren’t so standard and would generate the same information she had already gathered.
Then today, she told me about what she had done, briefly. I think she wants to make sure I know she is making progress.
Also I spoke with Terri today about her. She said she is going to help her with time management. This is great because it is definitely an area I struggle in and wouldn’t be as helpful for.
Helping each other…
We decided to meet on Tuesday (Feb 8th). The meeting was to have an interview for my thesis and to also talk about Ana’s Methods project. She had said initially that she wanted to help us (her mentors) with what we were doing so I capitalized on that. I had initially used doing an interview for my thesis as an excuse to talk to her about issues in Methods class because it seemed like she purposely hadn’t been discussing it with me. I realize now that was probably a projection and that I hadn’t specifically probed her about methods, I had assumed she would bring t up if she needed help.
So I did the interview first and afterward we discussed her Methods project. It ended up being really useful doing it in that order because as I interviewed her I discovered more about what she had valued in her previous experience in the studio class last semester as well as ways she worked. She told me she knew she wasn’t doing well in Methods and that she had talked to Lee about it. She said that problem had been that since her sister had given birth, she had been helping her out and had been spending too little time on her schoolwork. She said she wanted me to know that things had just changed and that her sister was doing better now on her own and that she had told her she needed to focus back on schoolwork. She said that really all she needed was to get caught up and she just wanted some feedback on her visuals. After talk to her about her project a little more, it seemed like she was having issues generating enough options and ideas for certain parts of her project. So we did a little diverge. At this time I also brought up again how important it will be for her to be in the studio now that she had time because she had expressed that she gets more done when she is in the studio. Also, while interviewing her, I realized her group had a framework for what they were going to get done that could be applied to her schoolwork. She said they always defined three things before starting the day: what are we doing, how are we doing it, and what kind of answers/data did we expect to find or generate. Because she seemed stuck with her methods, I suggested that she maybe use this framework to help focus her and to use it come up her plans of action for her Methods project.
After the meeting I felt fairly confident everything would be okay. She just really needed to get caught up in Methods. She seemed to be a little concerned but relatively confident in her abilities to get things done. She felt like she had no choice given her situation and that she just needed to move forward from this point. I will be checking in with her more on Methods from now on.
Checking in and checking on…
Over a two week period (Jan 31 thru Feb 11) I would have small chats with Ana. I would just check in and see how she was doing. I would ask if there was anything that she wanted to talk about, but she said she was doing fine and just trying to get things done. We would usually talk about what was going on in her life and she might talk about a few things school related, but mostly it was just casual conversation. I tried to gauge how she was doing by those smaller interactions, and all I really drew from them was that she seemed really busy and didn’t seem to have much time.
I also started asking Stuck how she was doing in Methods. She had expressed problems with it initially but hadn’t really given updates about that class, only studio. He seemed somewhat relieved that I was checking on her because he had noticed a lack of effort in that class and didn’t know how to approach her. The first week, I checked on her via Stuck I didn’t say anything to her about because she didn’t mention it to me. But the following week I asked Stuck again and he said the situation had gotten so bad that Lee was going to talk to her about it. I felt somewhat bad about asking Stuck about her; it felt like spying. So I decided I would interview her for my thesis and that maybe also during that time talk to her to find out what was going on. She emailed me back saying she would do the interview and that she also wanted to talk to me about methods.
It seemed like a weird, round-about way of getting to talk to her about it. Maybe I should have been more direct from the beginning and had very formal, weekly scheduled meetings. It just seemed like it would be forced and not as meaningful as if she just came to me when she had questions, concerns, or problems. We read about how feedback should be solicited by the person, so I feel kinda confused.
Meeting Thursday, Jan 27, 2011
I had suggested not having a set time and just meeting once a week whenever something came up that she wanted to talk about. This proved problematic because even though I’m in the studio a lot, Ana is not. So this past week, Terri suggested that we all have lunch on Thursday together.
We went upstairs to just sit at the little tables. Ana brought oranges with a spicy chile and lime seasoning. She told us about how its was a very popular snack in Mexico and we just chatted while we ate.
After a while Ana thought we should start to talk about mentor/mentee stuff so we switched topics. I asked what her goals are for the year. Her initial response was that she wants to pass. She went on to talk about how she wants to read more and that she also wants learn different strategies to get along with team members. I thought these were interesting things for her to say because it made me realize she is worried about her performance, with reading more I didn’t know what to make of that, and learning how get along with team members left me very confused because it seemed like she had gotten along well in her previous group.
After that Terri, I think asked if she had specific questions for us, and Ana then brought up methods. She told us how she wanted to look at children who had been removed from their family. She told us how she had gone to Children’s Bureau and how the woman there had not let her talk to anyone and had told her to go to the website. She seemed very frustrated with the incident. Both Terri and I talked about how certain populations are going to be harder to study, especially children because of their vulnerability. Ana then said she didn’t know what to do next because she wanted to work with those people. I then asked if she had diverged on the different kinds of people she could talk to within the context of “children removed from their families.” I felt like maybe she didn’t understand what I meant, so I started to diverge a little on therapists, CPS, parents, children, etc. Then I also suggested talking to Stephanie’s husband Tivon who had previously worked for CPS. She seemed very excited about the potential there. Terri and I also suggested spending time talking to people in the studio about it to see if anyone else had contacts. She seemed hesitant. Terri reassured her that it is ok to “use people in the studio” which came out funny like she was endorsing “using people.” Terri then clarified and said that everyone in the studio helps each other.
From that point I pushed the idea of spending more time in the studio. Both Terri and I feel that one of the best ways to learn in this program is to spend as much time in the studio working with people. We tried to drive this point home. I asked specific questions and Ana revealed that she has felt a lot of pressure from her sister to work at her sisters tax offices. This worries me because this semester is probably going to require a lot of quality time spent in the studio working as a large group.
Then Ana asked if there was anything she could help us with. I told her I could always use help with time management. She also talked about how she is taking a class in Organizational Psychology, which is really exciting for me because often Team Empowerment is within that realm. She told me she would keep me posted as to what she is learning in her class. This will be great to be helping each other with our goals.
Tuesday: Action Plan 9-14-10
Process:
In class on Tuesday Lee had us create an action plan. I tried to put in as much as I know, but I feel like I struggle to break the tasks into granular pieces.
Content:
Reflection:
Planning has never been my forte, but I have really tried over the past couple of years to be in positions where I can learn how to be. My biggest problem really isn’t the planning part it’s the execution, mainly because I am terrible at estimating how much time something will take to complete. While I work fairly well under some pressure, too much (which probably really isn’t that much) I buckle or become paralyzed. I have felt myself so far this year become paralyzed at times, usually when I have multiple things going on at once. I need to learn how to keep multiple things going at once, and it just really bothers me that I haven’t figured out how to do it well.
Past Week (week 3)
Process:
This week I realized that one of the ways I prefer to work is to talk to people I order to gather information. I continued to do research, but I also spent some quality time reading the IUPUI website looking for professors/”experts” about different subject areas. I located several different people and made appointments to speak with them. Who knows, maybe one of them will pan out to be a committee member. I also spent some time revising questions. I neglected working and revising my visual, beyond adding a few more small content areas. I feel like I figured out that another way that I work is to help other people with stuff and finding out how other people are tackling their theses.
Content:
I have several interviews lined up for this week.
I have narrowed in further on content areas:
- Problem Framing in Policy-Making
- Environments for Interdisciplinary Collaboration
- Transparency for Interdisciplinary Collaboration
- Evaluation of Process Skills
Reflection:
I think I’m not doing enough research and that despite efforts I am still too high level. My hope is that talking with people will help me to marrow in on something or find better key words to put into search database searches. I think I may not be spending enough time actually finding facts and too much time trying to figure out what I’m doing and how it relates to the big picture. I feel like I need to focus on content, but I find it difficult because I prefer to focus on process.
Something that’s bothering me:
I know we have been told that we do not need to be experts of content as a designer, but is this just when our job is to facilitate? With thesis it feels like we need to be experts of content in order to really do this well. I feel like maybe I’m missing something. I feel torn between telling myself not to worry too much about it because we will never have perfect information and we are “experts” of process and the idea that I need to know as much as possible about a topic so I can become an expert of something for my thesis. I know deep down it will all come together and that I should just keep chugging along with the knowledge that Lee and my fellow VC-ers won’t let me stray too far off course. It’s just bothering me.
More Research and a Visual…9-8-10
Process:
This week was my first attempt to go deep enough to start writing questions. I tried to gather many different articles from different fields. I also spent so quality time reflecting on why I’m heading in the direction I’m going. I looked at several different databases (like EBSCO and Google Scholar) to find articles. I used the research guides suggested by the librarian and have come across numerous interesting articles. I have had a hard time coming down from the meta level so I have had discussions with several people to see what they have done in their research; it definitely helps to get another perspective.
Content:
Reflection:
The more I research, the more interesting things I come across. I don’t think I have a problem converging, at least yet, but I think I just didn’t realize how much was packed into the terms I’ve been researching. I have really had a difficult time coming down to an appropriate level. (I just love the view at the meta-level.) I just sometimes having trouble seeing the trees in the forest. I have had the best luck by finding a few key articles and dissecting those for definitions, other citations, and key concepts. Also Spending some quality time reflecting has helped me better understand where to navigate next. So here are the Cliff’s Notes of my reflections on my content:
Why Collaboration:
- No one can know everything, so get lots of people who know some
- I want to work with complex problems which are better attacked with multiple perspectives
- Building off of each others ideas is a great way to come up with many different ideas
- The engineering side of me values efficiency and learning how to do this efficiently seems key to success in this field
- I am often fascinated by the many different perspectives people bring to the table
- As touchy/feel-y as it sounds, I truly want to know how to better understand and appreciate others
- I really enjoy being apart of teams that work for similar goals that I value like saving the world
- I really enjoyed the moment last year when my group really clicked and we worked as a team augmenting each others weaknesses
Sub-Category of Collaboration: Environment (as both a physical space and as an atmosphere)
- I feel in order to do well (as a collaborative team, for instance) there needs to be enabling factors to ensure positive outcomes
- I want to know what more about what these enabling factors could be and how they relate (tools, skills, environment, time, resources, etc.)
- I value efficiency and results/outcomes, so facilitating the best possible experience to help ensure that seems key
- I know (at least to some extent) how much the environments I am in affect me
Sub-Category of Collaboration: Shared Knowledge
- I value learning
- I want to continuously learn from everyone I meet
- I want to understand others by having them share with me
- I hate when people hold back knowledge to protect their turf. (Its selfish.)
- I value transparency and dislike hidden agendas
- I feel like giving everyone all the pieces of knowledge levels the playing field. (Unpacking that showed how much I value fairness)
- I really enjoyed making sense out of facts as a group
Public Policy: (haven’t done as much research here; I’m still pretty high level so far)
- I want to affect the greatest number of people possible
- I value seeing a cause and a direct effect
- I feel like policy change is more permanent and not just a fad
- I really want to work to make the government an organization that more people have faith in
Translational Design: (haven’t done as much research here; I’m still pretty high level so far)
- I think I am both left and right brained and would be able to bridge the gap between analytical thinkers and more creative/intuitive people
- I have a varied educational background and know terminology from several different fields
- I never felt “at home” in any one discipline
- I want to be in a field that I know will involve interdisciplinary collaboration.
Do-Good-er-ness: When I die I want to be able to look back on my life and know that I left the earth in a better place than it was when I arrived on it. (I know this isn’t a new concept, but I would like to think it is possible.)
Getting Organized and Doing Research 9-2-10
Process/How/Why:
I created a schedule for myself for the semester and potentially the year. I also created a “to do” list for blogging and one for researching. I created sheets for creating weekly action plans. I hope this helps to get me organized and keeps me on task. I also spent some quality time researching “interdisciplinary collaboration.” I have yet to get into some of my other topics of interest yet. I also participated in several brainstorming sessions for other people and others helped me with my topics too. Everyone is trying to help each other while still spending enough time on their own stuff. I also took a trip to the library with Nada, Stephanie, and Chris to find out more about research librarians. I was secretly hoping they had sit down consultations with students, but it looks like short emails and leaving phone messages are as good as it gets.
Outcomes/Content:
Reflection:
I felt like I was really floating last week and that I didn’t spend enough time working on thesis. So this week was about remedying that and getting back on track. I also realized this week that I kept staying very high level and general. I realize now I need a balance of breadth and depth, and so I have found articles both on specifics and general theories. What I’m doing still seems murky, but instead of dwelling on it, I will embrace the ambiguity and try to just enjoy the ride. (Enjoy here is used loosely since I know it will incur hours upon hours of blood, sweat, and tears.)
First attempts at thesis questions…
- How might the process of selecting an interdisciplinary team be facilitated for optimal design outcomes?
- How might people not trained in prototyping get over the initial intimidation that comes with trying it for the first time?
- How might interdisciplinary collaboration be facilitated in healthcare on a regular basis, beyond special circumstances?
- At what scale is design strategy best implemented?
- At what scale of problem or opportunity should an interdisciplinary team be used?
- How does design strategy replacing traditional business strategy affect the dynamics within the company in terms of both hierarchy and practices?
- How can the cohesion of an interdisciplinary group be expedited?
- How can businesses with top-down leadership overcome the hierarchical dynamics they are accustomed in order to create a flat playing field for collaboration?
- How might designers create the most appropriate environments for patient and doctor collaboration?
- How might interdisciplinary groups overcome ethnocentrism to understand each other’s perspectives, values, and expectations before beginning a project together?
- How can environments for collaboration be created to communicate the values of team members?
- How can the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary team be evaluated throughout the process to shape the behaviors of team members and ultimately the dynamics of the team itself for an optimal outcome?
Questions for topics
Interdisciplinary Collaboration:
- what does it mean?
- what are the outcomes?
- what does it look like?
- who facilitates?
- how do you deal with conflict?
- how do you find common values?
- should you have common values or is diversity better?
- how do you determine who you need in your group?
- Is interdisciplinary always better?
- how are people selected for groups?
- what criteria are involved to know if you are truly interdisciplinary?
- know people’s conflict styles?
- know people’s working styles?
- know who has what expertise?
- breadth of knowledge vs. depth in team?
- what theories are there currently about team dynamics?
Design Strategy:
- what is it?
- how is it different from “regular” design?
- what are the outcomes?
- on what scale is it best implemented?
- what types of strategy exist?
- are there inherent differences between design strategy by consultation vs. in-house?
- ethics with strategy
- design thinking as it relates to design strategy?
- design leadership as it relates to design strategy?
- design strategy for transformational design?
- what types of organizations have adopted these practices?
- why haven’t other kinds of organizations adopted these practices?
- how design strategy be valued equally with business strategy?
Prototyping:
- types of prototyping?
- how do you know when you are “done” iterating?
- making with end users?
- environments to foster prototyping process?
- rules for prototyping (like for diverging)?
- type of team formed special for prototyping?
- how to facilitate it?
- criteria for moving ahead in the process?
- how do you determine to most appropriate materials for prototyping?
- how are prototypes viewed in their various forms?
- prototyping applied to things vs. ideas vs. environments?
- prototyping for non-makers?
- intimidation or fear from failing while prototyping
Content for contexts or theories:
- university collaboration
- doctor with doctor collaboration
- doctor with patient collaboration
- design strategy for curriculum
- design strategy for policy making
- collaboration for policy change
