Page 146 - The Design Thinking Playbook

What characterizes an interdisciplinary team? As mentioned, Peter wants to rely on the in-depth and broadly based
knowledge of his teams. This idea is based on the principle of so-
In very general terms, interdisciplinary means comprising several called T-shaped people–people who have skills and knowledge that
disciplines. On interdisciplinary teams, ideas are produced on a are both deep and wide. The visual profile of skills is like a “T.” The
collective basis. In the end, everybody feels responsible for the overall concept was developed by Dorothy Leonard-Barton.
solution. A methodological and conceptual exchange of ideas takes
place on the way to the overall solution.

many cultures
many disciplines
many systems
(empathetic and communicative)

specialized in a system specialized in a discipline specialized in a culture (thinks analytically, problem solver)

In comparison with multidisciplinary teams, they have the The vertical bar of this “T” profile stands for the respective spe-
advantage in that, at the end, everybody stands behind the commonly cialist skills that someone has acquired in his training and that are
created product or service—a factor of success that multidisciplinary required for the individual steps in the design thinking process and
teams, for example, cannot afford. On a multidisciplinary team, every the implementation project. A psychologist, for example, brings along
member is an expert who advocates his or her specialization. The experience and methodological knowledge to the “Understand”
solution is often a compromise. phase.

The horizontal bar is defined by two characteristics. One is empathy:
This person is able to take up somebody else’s perspective while
Expert Expert Expert
looking past his own. The other is the ability to collaborate as well as
interface expertise: T-shaped people are open; interested in other per-
spectives and topics; and curious about other people, environments,
and disciplines. The better the understanding of the way others think
=
and work, the faster and greater the common progress and success in
the design thinking process.
+ +
145