The key to creating innovative solutions is to bring together a diverse group of people to tackle every project from Day 1.
Having an interdisciplinary team with varying skills and knowledge, and working so close together, can be challenging to manage.

The successful interdisciplinary team

While it is necessary to give teams the freedom to work as they see fit, it is still vital to create a framework that keeps the team moving forward together.
Every team can have a team leader and account director. The team leader can remove obstacles for the team. An account director can be a stand-in for the client to help if the team gets divided with decisions.

Let teams self-police within a structure

Successful teams allow for mistakes. The team members feel safe to be as creative as possible.
Every aspect can be re-engineered to allow for internal team feedback, allowing the team to self-manage, and for the team to know that their individual successes are meaningfully linked to the success of the group.

‘Psychologically safe’ environment

It is important to find people who are incredibly talented and have great expertise but do not mind to put their ideas up for scrutiny. 

A quality of interdisciplinary teams is that they value curiosity and consider many different expert approaches for the best overall solution.

Hire for curiosity

Interdisciplinary teams have to leave room so that real work can get done. Because they have multiple projects, they try to limit the loss of brainpower by working for days together on one project instead of jumping between tasks.
Working together in this way ensures that people know everything that is going on, and this allows for debate and questioning that comes with bringing diverse thinkers together.

Leave room for real dialogue

Offices should be designed to facilitate communication, warmth, and interaction. If you want people to be creative and bring their best selves, you can't expect them to stand at the same desk for many hours in a day.
For example, have an outdoor dining area full of plants and a huge, inviting communal table.

Foster community and creativity

The CEO of an award-winning design firm shares his blueprint for successful teamwork.

When design leaders think about how to grow their businesses, they usually don't stop at one product or service: they imagine all of the different ways they can expand, even if they're not quite sure how to get there. What if we could break into *this* new market?

The successful interdisciplinary team

Building an Interdisciplinary Team That Can Handle Any Project

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