Recipes for Systemic Change - Helsinki Design Lab

Subsection101Building a TeamAt one point during the first HDL Studio a member of theteam pulled us aside and remarked that they felt like theywere participating in an Agatha Christie novel: a group ofpeople pulled together out of thin air—why are they here andwhat will they do now? The reason Studio teams are assembledon a per-Studio basis is that challenges have diverseneeds and top talents that can address those various aspectsseldom exist as a pre-built team. Whether you are recruitingwithin your organization or outside it, let these criteria beyour guide.PeopleProcessProblemPlaceThe Right MixA good team is balanced along the axes of age, gender,geographical origin and domains of expertise. Seeking sucha balance will naturally push you to expand the size of theteam, but our experience confirms that 8-10 people is the bestsize for this kind of work. Anything smaller and it will limitthe balance of the group, any larger and it will be hard to holda single conversation. Of these eight, two should be strategicdesigners—one who takes the role of Design Lead and theother as a second opinion.The Right ExpertiseWhile the challenge briefing is under development youwill begin to understand which issues are relevant to thechallenge and in what proportion. Parallel with researchingand writing our own challenge briefings we create expertiseprofiles for each Studio. These are running lists that identifywhat we consider to be key perspectives for each Studio topic,which then allow us to target specific skill-sets and experienceprofiles. As you prepare, it is a good idea to keep this listposted in a public place and regularly review its contents toensure that it represents the current state of your knowledgeof the challenge.For instance, in the Studio on Sustainability we knewthat building physics, transit and policy would be key areas.These were quite predictable before we even started. We alsosought some perspectives that might at first be unexpected.The thought behind this is simple: if you only include theregular suspects you will only get regular results. By the sametoken, the notion of an ‘X-factor’ can go too far. For instance,although juggling is certainly an unexpected perspective for a