As a matter of Team.
“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” Andrew Carnegie
Today was the end of an important chapter, final presentations in the Design Thinking (DT postgraduate are almost over and my head was inevitably filled with some nostalgic thoughts I would like to share.
I studied fashion design, a rather individualistic way of creativity. I had never worked in a group project, and had never shared my ideas, let alone make them “our” ideas with anyone. Design thinking has thought me that two heads think more than one. And five goods heads, like the ones I had the opportunity to work with this semester, think better than many.
But let´s start from the beginning, and by that I mean the “project selection day”. I was late that day, and when I got to the classroom all the cool projects were taken. There was one nobody had chosen, an outcast, an abandoned puppy. It was ours: I placed my name in the project, and four amazing people did too. They were trying to earn their place in one of the cool things, but in the end… what matters most?
We were a good team in the beginning, but today I can say without a doubt, we became an amazing team. All this time of Definition, Ideation, Creation, Prototyping, Testing…resulted in a great project, but most importantly in the birth of a great group of individuals working together to achieve the same goal.
I now know that it ´s not about the problem you choose to solve, it´s about how you bond with the people you are working with to solve it. Choose your team, do not choose a project: choose friendship, choose intelligence, choose kindness, choose commitment. Because, whatever the project, if you have the right people by your side, you will end up falling in love with it.
I don´t mean to brag about my team 🙂 I think it´s of huge importance for the new students in our field to take this into account before blinding themselves with their individual preferences regarding a project.
Thank you for a great semester and good luck everyone!
