Collaborative thinking: four key roles you need in your team

"Dialogue and the art of thinking together" William Issacs

1. 
   

   1. Mover 
   
   

   1. Without Movers there is no direction-  These are the people who actually do things. They get things done and motivate others to do the same. 
2. 
   

   1. Opposer 
   
   

   1. Without Opposers there is no correction- The people who spot the flaws in ideas and challenge and question why certain things are being done. This achieves a higher quality and more thought through end result that can be justified. 
3. 
   

   1. Follower 
   
   

   1. Without Followers there is no completion- These are the ones that complete tasks that are given to them. they may also finish off jobs that others have begun and not completed. They are reliable team mates and see things through.
4. 
   

   1. Bystander 
   
   

   1. Without Bystanders there is no perspective- People who watch from afar and view things in a different fresh way. They offer opinions that people working directly on a job wouldn't necessarily consider. 

I think with this methodology, it is possible for team members to play more than one of these roles. In my team:

Mover- ARCH1 and ARCH2

Opposer- IND2, ARCH2

Follower- IND2, INT1

Bystander- INT1, IND1

All of these are crucial for success. I don't think there is one most important role here. Although if one had to be sacrificed I would say leave the bystander. Particularly in a small group like ours. With only 5 people it is important that every member is actually "doing". Bystanders would be great for large teams where a logical well justified design is required, but here I think we need to just focus on getting everything done to a high standard, especially aesthetically. 

(Isaacs, 1999) 

Team or Working Group?

The bunch of people I am working with definitely seem to have formed a working group (Katzenback & Smith, 2001). However I think this is inevitable with this particular project. With all of the different disciplines and all of the fields needing to be addressed for the project it is unavoidable for everyone to do their own thing by themselves.

Our strategy seems to be to work together during the tutorial times particularly in charette times then the specific person can use everyones ideas and thoughts if they wish to further develop their area. After the charette on a specific displace, the person is left to work alone and come up with the final resolved solutions. Of course questions can be asked via the Facebook group, but it seems members are too engrossed in their own work to be too interested in other peoples areas.

I think our initial concept presentation was evidence of our "working group". The visuals were not consistent and they lacked connection across discipline. It was very clear the separate elements which each person had done. They were all different personal styles, which is not necessarily a bad thing but they just did not work well together.

For the final presentation I think if we are able to finish it a few days early to allow time for maybe one person or even the whole group to go through and make everything coherent and appear as if they belong together. This will at least make our work appear as if we have worked as a team. But doing this throughout the process will bring the group together so that we are actually able to complete the project as a team not as separate disciplines. Solving problems together and inspiring each other should be an ongoing part of the project not just once in a tutorial class for a charette. We are at present parts of a working group but we should definitely aim to become more of a team to achieve maximum results at the end of the project.