Common Visions; Uncommon Collaborations (Next Lives Here Summit)

Backs By: Laura Mendez Ortiz

I was amazed by the speakers present at this event! In particular, one speaker inspired me because he was a very recent (2016) UC and was already a founder of a top start up in Cincinnati, Urban Hive.  Each of these speakers came from different backgrounds but all had experience with  creating spaces where people of different skills and ideas can come together. They shared their experiences and insights about what to expect from innovative projects, how to create spaces for collaboration, and lastly key aspects of collaborative and innovative work. Here are a few of the take - aways I got from the panel. One speaker talked about how in order to create a common vision, there must be constant modeling and altering. Another speaker agreed and talked about how it important it was to be willing to change. They talked a lot about how important it was for them to get out of their comfort zone and be comfortable with the discomfort. It was interesting to hear how for them this was the "fun" part.  Someone even described it as "scary fun". This "scary fun" even included the impasses that they say always occurs in projects. One of the speaker Andrew talked about how it was at the impasses that showed him how worth it his projects were. These are the turning points at which one asks themselves, "have  I gone to far"?  They demonstrated that impasses were just as, if not more, important for projects. Andrew Backs said that in order for innovation to occur or for impasses to turn into something incredible, it is important to create safe spaces of failure. Another speaker, Steve Fifita, discussed extensively how to create an effective space of collaboration. He said it was important to create a "safe sandbox". He said this was part of the structuring which is imperative for creating effective collaboration. It is not something that just happens. In addition, another speaker said that culture acceptance and knowing the culture in which you are working in are important to be able to " build bridges". One speaker said that in collaborative work, values must be seen and used indifferent ways.  Learning is shared and transferable. Lastly , they also talked about the project or product themselves. The expressed that in order for a project or product to be effective, the problem it is trying to resolve must be fully understood and backed up by data. Data is key.

I think these take- aways will be important to keep in mind as I work within my group in this class. In my group each person comes from a completely different major, college,and year. Yet it has given us a lot of different experiences and knowledge to tackle issues in our project.