The rehearsal is over. It is show-time. The studio this week was buzzing with anticipation: the clients were coming. In the days previous to the Wednesday studio, students were requested to review short summaries of projects from a variety of sponsors or clients from a range of sectors from financial services to energy to health. We then asked the students through an on-line poll to give their preferences so we could put them into groups. That was fun in itself!
Come Wednesday we more or less had some groups organized and we were treated to presentations from our 4 client/sponsors:
Coast Capital Savings: the “what’s-in-it-for-me” Membership Project (ways to communicate with, engage and interact with the “youth” market)
BioRegional + Concert Properties: Residential retrofit (find ways to create value for the City, multi-family building owners and residents around new methods of leveraging social and behaviour change around one planet living)
Pulse Energy + AMS Catering: Catering to energy (in new SUB building — how do we make the catering enterprise more energy aware?)
Vancouver Coastal Health: Enhancing Supplies Management for Patient Care for nursing staff at Lions Gate Hospital Emergency Department
So the major project for the d-studio has been launched. The students are now working on scoping the project — the first job is to define the challenge and then get the team working in terms of a blueprint for the next 6 weeks.
In that spirit, we are fortunate to have Diana Cawood as a team coach for the d.studio. At Wednesday’s session Diana introduced a guide for Team Effectiveness Practices. Students will be using this guide to practice debriefing with their team after every meeting. There are 5 practices that they will track:
- Purpose: the team’s work is well-deinfed and agreed upon
- Presence: engagement and paying attention
- Possibilities: staying open to options
- Connection: keeping relationships healthy
- Contribution: sharing the work and your talents
The students, each week, will choose 1-3 skills to be their person points of practice. They’ll share these with their teams.
I am excited about being able to offer this coaching component of the studio. When I was travelling and meeting colleagues who are also experimenting in the design + business zone their common advice was to invest in coaching for the business students. So the UBC Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund grant has allowed me to offer this to the students. Diana will be coaching the individual teams for two sessions each.
As I said to the students — now each 3-hour studio becomes a time for working hard together on the project and seeking advice from Moura, Ron & Miguel — and their peers. Will be inspiring to see what emerges.