Comments on: Interdisciplinarity vs Cross-Disciplinarity

By: rotkapchen

rotkapchen — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:32:14 +0000

So should we be venturing toward becoming a “humility shaman”?

By: My most important Twitter Messages #6 | der hess

My most important Twitter Messages #6 | der hess — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:14:13 +0000

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By: Andy Polaine

Andy Polaine — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:07:12 +0000

Hi Beth,

Thanks for your thoughtful comment. It's not that a mindset can't be
taught, just that it is much more difficult, especially when those
minds are set already from a school system that, in general, doesn't
gear itself towards collaborative working and discipline humility. It
also doesn't fit very well with the kind of measurement of learning
and teaching that most institutions and government departments wish
for. It's hard to measure someone's mindset.

With regards to professionalism and mastery, as you not, I didn't say
they're not important. I said it's often very good to be bad at
something too. It's a useful mindset to cultivate because you
remember what it's like not to be a master and to be a learner. It
also gives yourself permission to try out something new with a more
open mind – i.e., switch the mindset without beating yourself up about
not having the skills yet.

I think giving a name to what you do is, in the end, much more
important for the doer than anyone else. I know this flies against all
the blah out there about marketing yourself and branding, etc., but
most of that is waffle anyway. I know several highly successful people
who are very difficult to define and who don't bother to define
themselves to themselves at all. Their secret is that they let others
decide what it is they do and put them in the pigeonhole that makes
the most sense to the outsider. Most of us, though, feel the need to
say, "I am a ...".

I would argue that your mastery likely isn't in the craft skills of
drafting a prototype or setting the agenda for a workshop, but that
you have had success in these because of the way in which you think.
Congratulations to CCA are in order possibly, but I'm interested to
know whether you already had that kind of mind before you started and
that it was cultivated there, or whether this really was a turn around
in thinking for you?

By: beth berrean

beth berrean — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 23:05:32 +0000

Andy,

I read your post a couple days ago and find myself returning to your thoughts on professionalism, humility and service design. As a recent graduate of CCA’s MBA in Design Strategy program, it’s perhaps not surprising that I find myself disagreeing a bit with the idea that service design mindset can’t be taught and that professionalism or mastery isn’t that important.

I appreciate that your point wasn’t (I think) to discourage students or programs, but rather point out that this mastery is only part of equation.

Let me speak a different side of that equation which I think is an equally important part in working across disciplines.

I work as a designer in a fairly prestigious medical school (UCSF School of Medicine) and I’ve recently had the pleasure of collaborating with on three different grant proposals on some interesting technology based behavioral interventions.

In the past month, I’ve been able to say—I know how to test that; I can put together an agenda for a participatory workshop; I can draft a low-fidelity prototype; Let’s look at the analytics and see what we can figure out.

That’s the benefit of professionalism and mastery – both in giving what I do a name for others and in giving what I know how to do credibility. Indeed, I might argue that all a professional degree really does is teach a mind-set—whether for good or for bad.

In any event, thank you for giving me something to mull over for the past couple days.

beth berrean
CCA DMBA Class of ’10
website services manager, UCSF School of Medicine
berreanb@gmail.com

By: Leapfroglog - links for 2010-06-08

Leapfroglog - links for 2010-06-08 — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 12:01:51 +0000

[...] Links on 8 June 2010 with no comments Interdisciplinarity vs Cross-Disciplinarity « Playpen "Instead of focusing on racking up 10,000 hours, spend a few hundred hours being bad at [...]

By: User Experience, Usability and Design links for June 8th | BlobFisk.com

User Experience, Usability and Design links for June 8th | BlobFisk.com — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:05:32 +0000

[...] Interdisciplinarity vs Cross-DisciplinarityInterdisciplinarity and cross-disciplinarity have been buzzwords for the last few years, especially in education. I teach on the COFA Online Masters of Cross-Disciplinary Art & Design and in my main position at the Hochschule Luzern – Design & Kunst (HSLU), the phrase regularly enters discussions. The terms are used often interchangeably and often without really explaining what they mean. As so often is the case, the idea seems to be that by just talking about disciplines working together magic things will happen. [...]