We invited several guest critics to view the projects that the students prepared — a new or revised business model pitch and a headline/press release. The critics were: Ronna Chisholm: Business Direction, Dossier Creative; Don Chisholm: Creative Direction, Dossier Creative; Kara Pecknold: Olive Life Group; Professor Darren Dahl: Marketing, UBC Sauder School of Business; Professor Mahesh Nagarajan: Operations/Logic, UBC Sauder School of Business; and, Denise Withers: Manager, Learning Design, UBC Sauder School of Business. Thank you to all — the critics did a great job of expanding the learning during the afternoon.
Thought it might be fun to quote from some of the blog postings from the students after the critique last Wednesday in the d-studio. One of the on-going assignments of the d-studio is that the students post blogs, ideally once a week, reflecting upon what they are doing and learning.
So here is a sampling for your enjoyment:
Bernhard:
First of all it [the critique] always make me reflect upon my words and actions (usually afterwards) and that creates experience which I can later use to improve….
Secondly, answering questions on the spot makes me take a step further. When grasping for strong points and looking for a way out new ideas take form. One concrete example of this was the Canada Post bank, a bank you can trust in. If the problem with digital solutions is that most people don’t trust the internet, then use your trustable brand to overcome that.
Last but not least, it’s a great motivator. I really liked how one of the experts told us about the ideator and how a few good words here and there was like a shuffle of coal in the engine. I like to come up with new crazy ideas, but most times they go silently by and I then go on to give ideas to someone who cares. Sometimes it can take a long time before you hear a positive word, but making it in public generally feels not like one shuffle but as a whole train car, it can keep me going for a long time.
Sarah:
Being a well trained Sauder student, I possess a fantastic critical voice. My first three years at University have taught me to question everything, and not put forth an answer without being 100% sure I can defend my position. Although in most courses this is a highly sought after skill, I think this is what is holding me back from being a successful blogger, and causing difficulty with my Studio projects.
The past two weeks I have been unable to come up with anything to write regarding Studio, or any of my other courses for that matter. After our presentations in Studio today, however, I realized that what has been silencing my blogging all along is my critical voice. I found the critique of my presentation today to be quite enlightening and gave me a new way to view my blog, and the creative process in general.
Start big, be totally crazy, get all your ideas out there, and then figure out how you can make them work.
What a great lesson. As simple and basic as it may seem, the encouragement Sam and I received from the guest critic today to further explore the craziness of our ideas has given me the push to finally silence my VERY critical voice and see what the creative part of me has to say.
Studio once again has managed to change the way I view the business world and my approach to everything…What a great and fun way to learn.
Three more to come…