[Music]
thank you I have a question for everyone
what do golfers and designers have in
common
neither are inclined to work together as
a team
golfers train and compete as individuals
except for the occasional tournament
like the riders cup designers believe
they can design it all except for when
they’re making software and today I want
to talk to you about how we build
effective teams and how that affects our
output especially in situations we group
together people trained as individuals
and we expect them to become a
high-performing team like we do in our
work environments and I came across this
story about golf when I was dealing with
my own failures with building a cohesive
team and it taught me lessons about
teamwork connections and communication
that I want to share with you today but
first the story it starts in 2008 and
the riders cup US golf team captain was
a man named Paul Azinger Paul had this
problem he had to bring together golfers
to become a team but he only had one
week and traditionally the teams before
him
paired golfers by skill set much like
the way we build teams but Paul had a
different idea he wanted to pair
personalities and he believed if they
could communicate a well-placed comment
a subtle facial expression they could
propel each other across the green for
the win and he was right they finally
won that tournament what Paul figured
out and the teams before him missed was
that the golfers understood skill set
they knew the goal when the riders cut
but what he gave them was an opportunity
for better connection and stronger
communication now what does this have to
do with designing software and teaching
students to design software like I do in
my day job where I work where
traditionalists and we think in skill
sets
para this visual designer with this
design researcher point them towards the
right goal and you have the best team
ever we know this is not true yet we
perpetuate this idea every day and I
brought this idea into my classroom well
I teach design portfolio and this is
typically the last class students go
through before they enter the job market
and I unwittingly hammered home in every
class you have to be the best designer
with the best portfolio to get a hint at
a job interview so it’s no wonder that
out of the 15 students in my class only
three completed their portfolio three
this was a huge failure for me and as a
teacher I needed to get better I needed
to improve the situation for my students
and I started to focus on one student
who was actually so successful in the
class and she got hired right out of
right out of the class and let’s call
her Emma and was my case study analyst
approach was simple yet none of that
none any other teachers including me
were doing it and from Emma’s
perspective the task of looking for jobs
applying interviewing in finishing her
portfolio these were all so daunting
that she couldn’t do it by herself and
so she gathered together a group of
design students who can help her with
these skills and build and support her
with these goals and over time some of
the students left because they didn’t
have the right skill set others couldn’t
commit to the same goals and some could
not or did not want to connect in any
meaningful way with the rest of the
group but what this left there with was
a solid team right levels skills right
level of commitment right level of
connection with each other and I went
further and I asked their current team
where she works why they hired her and
they said there’s no doubt we knew Emma
was awesome and we knew she’d fit in and
I realized at that moment and his
ability to build a cohesive team
and be effective in it set herself up
for success now some of this can be
attributed to Emma but I can still take
these lessons and bring it into my
portfolio class to improve the situation
and I started requiring or getting my
students to communicate with each other
by requiring them to check in with every
class and this gave them permission to
get up from their computers help the
person next to them and get more
comfortable with asking for help and I
learned that students understand skills
they know the goal but we have to teach
them how to communicate better and sadly
this is where education system falls
short what Paul and Emma have showed us
is that we have to teach our students to
connect more on a human level with to
teach them to offer value to be
vulnerable to build skills and build
groups to support them with their
lifelong goals we have to let them know
they can’t do it by themselves and
that’s okay we can change how our
students enter the workplace how they
affect the world around them if we just
teach them how to build cohesive teams
thank you
[Applause]
thank you I have a question for everyone
what do golfers and designers have in
common
neither are inclined to work together as
a team
golfers train and compete as individuals
except for the occasional tournament
like the riders cup designers believe
they can design it all except for when
they’re making software and today I want
to talk to you about how we build
effective teams and how that affects our
output especially in situations we group
together people trained as individuals
and we expect them to become a
high-performing team like we do in our
work environments and I came across this
story about golf when I was dealing with
my own failures with building a cohesive
team and it taught me lessons about
teamwork connections and communication
that I want to share with you today but
first the story it starts in 2008 and
the riders cup US golf team captain was
a man named Paul Azinger Paul had this
problem he had to bring together golfers
to become a team but he only had one
week and traditionally the teams before
him
paired golfers by skill set much like
the way we build teams but Paul had a
different idea he wanted to pair
personalities and he believed if they
could communicate a well-placed comment
a subtle facial expression they could
propel each other across the green for
the win and he was right they finally
won that tournament what Paul figured
out and the teams before him missed was
that the golfers understood skill set
they knew the goal when the riders cut
but what he gave them was an opportunity
for better connection and stronger
communication now what does this have to
do with designing software and teaching
students to design software like I do in
my day job where I work where
traditionalists and we think in skill
sets
para this visual designer with this
design researcher point them towards the
right goal and you have the best team
ever we know this is not true yet we
perpetuate this idea every day and I
brought this idea into my classroom well
I teach design portfolio and this is
typically the last class students go
through before they enter the job market
and I unwittingly hammered home in every
class you have to be the best designer
with the best portfolio to get a hint at
a job interview so it’s no wonder that
out of the 15 students in my class only
three completed their portfolio three
this was a huge failure for me and as a
teacher I needed to get better I needed
to improve the situation for my students
and I started to focus on one student
who was actually so successful in the
class and she got hired right out of
right out of the class and let’s call
her Emma and was my case study analyst
approach was simple yet none of that
none any other teachers including me
were doing it and from Emma’s
perspective the task of looking for jobs
applying interviewing in finishing her
portfolio these were all so daunting
that she couldn’t do it by herself and
so she gathered together a group of
design students who can help her with
these skills and build and support her
with these goals and over time some of
the students left because they didn’t
have the right skill set others couldn’t
commit to the same goals and some could
not or did not want to connect in any
meaningful way with the rest of the
group but what this left there with was
a solid team right levels skills right
level of commitment right level of
connection with each other and I went
further and I asked their current team
where she works why they hired her and
they said there’s no doubt we knew Emma
was awesome and we knew she’d fit in and
I realized at that moment and his
ability to build a cohesive team
and be effective in it set herself up
for success now some of this can be
attributed to Emma but I can still take
these lessons and bring it into my
portfolio class to improve the situation
and I started requiring or getting my
students to communicate with each other
by requiring them to check in with every
class and this gave them permission to
get up from their computers help the
person next to them and get more
comfortable with asking for help and I
learned that students understand skills
they know the goal but we have to teach
them how to communicate better and sadly
this is where education system falls
short what Paul and Emma have showed us
is that we have to teach our students to
connect more on a human level with to
teach them to offer value to be
vulnerable to build skills and build
groups to support them with their
lifelong goals we have to let them know
they can’t do it by themselves and
that’s okay we can change how our
students enter the workplace how they
affect the world around them if we just
teach them how to build cohesive teams
thank you
[Applause]
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