- Summarize and report out on the results of the SKS exercise.
Start/Keep/Stop:
Start: taking notes during every meeting we have, talking to more stakeholders.
Keep: maintaining open conversations/willingness to be honest with one another, revising our goals.
Stop: neglecting the small subsets of ideas we may think of (these will take us farther than we think!), completely depending on certain people to get certain things done (need to instead start individually learning about other aspects of the project that we may be as specialized in)
- Develop a detailed Collaboration Plan for your team clearly articulating your Goals (Small g and Big G), Roles, Procedures, and Relationships.
Goals
- Personal Goals
Adele: To create a green space that is meaningful to students.
Ella: To create a better relationship between students and Lehigh through creating spaces made for students’ needs.
Evy: To enhance students’ connections to nature and create something that deviates them from the potential monotony of their current routines.
Gia: To create a way for students to connect with nature in their daily lives.
Rafael: To make a space where students can have a meaningful relationship with nature, but benefit from it as well
Sebastian: To create a space in which students feel less stressed and connected to nature.
- Project GOAL: to establish a nature infused space on campus that helps students alleviate stress and increase mindfulness.
- Resources:
- Metrics: To measure our success, we need to measure culture; in our case, this is finding a way to both qualify and quantify how increased exposure to nature is psychologically influencing students. As mentioned in our meeting with Chris, this may be as simple as counting how many students engage with our living space on a daily basis, with higher numbers indicating that more students are drawn to the greenery. However we are also going to research similar studies that utilize methods of measuring culture to see how we can apply similar tactics into our own project.
Roles
As a team we believe that it is best to not keep stringent roles, even though each of us have specific skill sets and experiences. It is important to us that all voices are heard throughout the entirety of this project, and the people who might not be as well versed in certain topics often offer the most unique and creative insights
We still do, however, require some loose set of roles to make sure we optimize the skills of our team members.
Sebastian has experience in CAD modeling, prototyping, and coding, so he has the broad skills necessary to convert ideas into real virtual or physical prototypes. As such, his main role will be to interpret the ideas/brainstorming of the team so that they can be made into reality.
Rafael has in depth coding experience and is studying bioengineering, so he will be working on more of the software aspects of the project and most likely work in conjunction with prototyping.
With her research and surveying experience as well as natural leadership capabilities, Gia will be working on measuring the impact of our prototypes and gathering the data necessary to ensure we are meeting the needs of our target audience.
As an environmental engineer, Evy will be leading the natural elements of this project. This includes designing around the plants’ needs and ensuring that our project meets our sustainability goals.
Being an architecture major and psychology minor, Ella will be working closely with the design of the physical structures of our project and making sure that it will help foster mindfulness in students studying and working around it.
Adele, a biology and HMS major, will be working in multiple facets of our project going forward. She will help guide the design process and work closely with Gia and Evy in gathering data and ensuring that our structure is meeting Lehigh’s sustainability goals as well as reducing the stress of students.
Procedures
Decision Making – We are using a majority rules decision making process, but group members have veto abilities so long as they provide reasoning for their decision.
Effective Meetings – Before meetings we set goals, so we show up to the meeting with a plan and the materials necessary to achieve those goals, be they decisions or simply putting thoughts on paper. We expect our members to keep us updated on problems they encounter outside of meeting times, and to pay attention to and assist group members who need help, so that meeting time can be used efficiently. At the end of the meeting, we collectively set action tasks, which are posted into Slack, so that we know what we need to do to prepare for the next meeting and keep the project in forward motion.
Meeting roles: The only defined meeting role is the note taker, which rotates per meeting. Other meeting roles are dependent on the meeting–there is no defined meeting leader, but it is generally the person who is presenting information regarding the previously set goals. In the future, we are looking to implement a timekeeper, so we can ensure we stay on track.
Communication – Communication is through Slack or GroupMe. There are no hard and fast rules about time frame, but it is not expected that group members respond to messages sent after 6pm. If a group member needs help with something, it is expected that other members respond when they can. Other messages like ideas and helpful links do not come with any expected response.
Relationships
We have an incredibly diverse team of scientists, engineers, and divergent thinkers. With team members who can bring in concepts from architecture, biology, psychology, coding, design systems, physics, & engineering, we are at no loss for creative, divergent ideas. Additionally, with some team members that push us forward, others that keep us grounded, and every person inspiring the rest of the group, we have an extremely balanced group dynamic. This diverse team composition has already served us in defining our project purpose, and it will continue to serve us as we create solutions. Because we have such widespread backgrounds, it is extremely important that we listen to each other because every member has a unique perspective to contribute, and it is these perspectives that will propel us forward towards our goals.