When worlds collide: Integrated development with business and design students

Design Management Journal, Summer 2002 by Rothstein, Paul

The results of this small preliminary study suggest that there are considerable challenges in transforming contemporary business and design education into something more relevant to current conditions in professional development. At the very least, this will require a sober recognition that existing curriculum, organizational culture, and institutional structure can indeed compromise the goal of educating tomorrow's leaders. Without a radical reconsideration at all levels, the majority of students who graduate in business and design will likely not possess the knowledge, skill, and experience to quickly assume leadership roles in contemporary development.

Clearly, the curricula in many design and business schools will need to be refocused and restructured. Exposure to ethnographic methods, for example, would familiarize students with specific methods and attitudes for exploring and managing messy real-world data. Given the wide adoption of ethnography and other qualitative approaches in contemporary development, education in this area would improve students' ability to manage ambiguity while also preparing them to become more versatile and useful professionals.

Students also should be introduced to cross-- functional teamwork long before they reach their final year of college. This may require specific courses to explore the theory and practice of teamwork, particularly as it is applied in integrated development.

Nonetheless, there are significant impediments to successfully implementing a curriculum in team-based IDP, not the least of which is the organizational structure of many universities (that is, separate, discipline-specific colleges and schools). In many cases, the existing system stands in the way of integration, collaboration, and cross-functional interaction. A fresh approach is needed to break down the barriers that separate business, engineering, and design. Without it, student teams will likely suffer the same fate as the professional teams Donnellon studied: "They assimilated, making themselves into the kinds of teams their organizations would tolerate. Unfortunately, these were not the kind of teams that produced the desired results."3

While my study was confined to education and students, the implications of the results may have broader value, particularly for organizations contemplating the introduction of new team structures and integrated processes. From the results, it is reasonable to speculate that such an introduction will produce a variety of difficulties relating to individual workers' attitudes about creativity, leadership, and teamwork. Anticipating these difficulties, while providing effective remedies, may indeed spell the difference between success and failure.

Reprint # 02133ROT62

1. Tom Kelley, The Art of Innovation (New York: Doubleday, 2001), p. 69.

2. Anne Donnellon, "Cross-functional Teams in Product Development: Accommodating the Structure to the Process," Journal of Product Innovation Management vol. 10 (1993), no. 5, p. 379.