Better Lives Blog Post 1
Led by Claire Swift – Director or Responsibility at London College of Fashion, the Better Lives lecture that impacted my way of thinking the most is the one entitled “Collaboration”. A large aspect of the Better Lives unit is working in teams. As someone who often takes the preference to work individually, this part of the unit initially appeared to be one of the most challenging. The dedicated lecture on this topic helped my working methods greatly.
Swift informed us as to how, as an individual, you don’t have “every single aspect of every piece of knowledge”. You rely on other people’s skills to contribute to producing something which is what brings a team together. On the Better Lives unit, you work with students from other courses who each possess a different skill set. This makes the collaboration element of the unit one of the most important. As we are yet to meet our team members, I found that this focus on the relevance of teamwork prepared me for meeting my team in the lectures taking place later on in the unit.
We were shown a number of examples of collaborations in the fashion industry such as David Sims campaign for Vivienne Westwood’s collaboration with Burberry. This partnership brought together punk and tradition. Other examples include Dolce & Gabbana and SMEG. This showed us how working as a team in a collaborative effort is commonplace in industry and can lead to some very successful, profitable results. We were shown how accomplishments are often achieved in a group situation as group members are able to build on each other’s ideas with innovation emerging from the bottom up.
Swift introduced us to the concepts of Belbin’s team roles curated by Dr Meredith Belbin and Tuckman’s theory which presents the stages of group development. This informed me that there is a systematic skill required in order to excel as a team which is not something I had previously considered. These theories explore the fluctuations in the harmony of groups. We were taught about a concept called the ‘GroupThink Theory’ established by Yale psychologist Irving Janis. This occurs when a team is experiencing certain conditions that lead to a flawed decision being made. This result can be detrimental and destructive to the team.
Brainstorming is something that I have had experience with throughout my academic career but have always felt it wasn’t a very productive method of working. In this lecture, there was a focus on brainstorming ideas and how to utilize this approach efficiently. We were informed as to how there should be no criticism in brainstorming and that the more the ideas the better. These ideas can be made into combinations with previous ideas for an optimum result.
Overall, I found that this lecture has helped me to feel more prepared for the rest of the unit. When considering the values of the Better Lives unit – Sustainability, Social Responsibility and Diversity – I think that a collaborative approach will be very beneficial. I think this will particularly be the case in terms of the ‘Diversity’ element as it is important to hear and include a wide range of viewpoints in my work. The opportunity to meet and work with a variety of people who I have never met before is very exciting.