I am at Boston College and in a class on Designing Formative Experience, after 25+ years in one career, as part of my own designed life transition. Because of this, I began the course wanting to make "Transitions" the powerful idea that would guide me in the final class project. This theme was my first contribution to the project. I was delighted to find some classmates who brought their own interests in the topic, from various perspectives, to a collaborative effort.
Once we settled on the idea of providing a sensory experience of disorientation--by way of a tunnel of darkness, obstacles, and decision--I was responsible building the framing for the structure. It would need to be tall enough to walk through, stable enough to safely hold curtains and cardboard, and require assembly and disassembly within a few hours. This structure was our middle section, the experiential core of the exhibit. I also contributed photos to the first section, and in the third section I provided the instructional content for our poster on "Transitions," as well as some quotes/poems for the "take a thought, leave a thought" wall above the video interviews.
One of the things I enjoyed about the teamwork was that, while each of us can name discreet things we did on the project, we all collectively contributed to the all three phases of the experience and commented on each other's delegated tasks. The whole was greater than the sum of delegated parts, and everyone shouldered true responsibility.
My moments of greatest enjoyment came (1) when we were engaged as a team in collaborative generation and improvement of ideas, and especially when I could feel that we truly and collectively wanted the best idea to "win," without territorial dynamics or siloed thinking. I find that kind of optimization process, creativity, and problem-solving with others exhilirating; (2) when I was hands-on with the metal rods trying to find the right hardware to use as joints between the six and seven foot rods, cutting the metal with heavy machines, and discovering/overcoming a major hurdle 36 hours before the "opening" (the rods had holes that I has assumed the screws would thread into, but the holes where not threaded and I learned how to manually thread 20 holes the exact size of the screws); and lastly (3) the final set-up when for the first-time we had the experience of seeing all the dozens of decisions and artifacts assembled and arranged as we envisioned, while also making some last minute changes that only became evident with the live 3-D experience of installation.
I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project with my team. We span three different decades of life, half men and women, two countries of origin, and different vocational backgrounds. We were united in purpose, some with a bias for action, some with a bias for reflection, some more creative/imaginative, and some more practically oriented. I was reminded of the joys, which I have experienced throughout my career, of working with a team toward a common goal. And I was reminded how important it is, in such efforts, to put ego aside, have the humility to trust that better ideas will often come from team members, and that I find collective victories to be more satisfying than individual achievements. And I was reminded that, whatever my next vocational chapter holds, I hope to be part of a collaborative and creative team.