Reflection 5: Reflections on Change

Wow, time really flew by. This feels especially true with the D. Studio. I remember when I first walked through the glass doors and into the white and bright space- a little dazzled by Moura’s tall figure at the front of the class, her pantsuit, by the coloured name placards, and the squashy rolley chairs. Taking all this in, I knew that this was going to be a classroom experience like no other.

Moura In Her Pantsuit

Behind each cupboard was a “fun box” full of colourful stickers, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, LEGO!!!, and a random assortment of other things. Best part? Permission to play with all this while in class. As a commerce student since year 1, I was bombarded with Accounting, Finance, TLOG, Marketing, and the likes. There was a lot of case analyzing, reconciling records, present value calculations. Not really much room for creativity. And no, creative accounting didn’t do it for me. So that is why the Design Studio was such a fresh experience. Being in a room full of business students with creative juices flowing, it was functional creativity at its finest.

This is the most important concept that I learned while in the D. Studio– functional creativity.

Before UBC (aka high school times), I was heavily immersed in fine arts. That was a different type of creativity- more artsy thinking was required. When I entered UBC, by and large the creativity was swept aside to welcome the development of analytical skills that are so important for business. It got to a point where I actually felt envious of students in arts because I imagined a classical liberal arts degree where students sat under trees to draw and discuss their scholarly thoughts. How romanticized, right?

So the D. Studio was like a breath of fresh air. I started engaging in what I now call functional creativity. It is unlike artsy creativity in that you are creative with a purpose. Before, making associations through flow charts and mind maps was as fancy as I got. Now, my thinking habits have expanded to drawing little figures and making non-linear associations. I am confident that I would steal the attention of a 5-year old kid with my illustrated thought process.

The tools I have found particularly useful:

The “Six Thinking Hats” – because it helped me isolate different aspects of a problem. I sometimes use it to make decisions on whether or not to go forward with something.

“Ask, Try, Do” – because it is a tool that I have tried to semi-use prior to knowing there was an actual process with an official name. Having practiced it in the Studio helped made the process much clearer. “Ask, Try, Do” was particularly effective when we used it in our workshop at Van Houtte’s Cafe.

Because of the D. Studio environment, I can turn off my critical voice and just let thoughts play out from my head without consideration for their feasibility. This is a huge difference from before. I was definitely out of my comfort zone for the first two weeks in class, but now, I am either comfortable with the uncomfortable, or I am no longer uncomfortable. Wait, maybe they’re the same thing, haha. Anyway, all you need to know is that I liken myself to this guy here.

To Infinity And Beyond