IA Summit 2017

NOTE: This workshop has a FEE of $650. To attend, you must register for the workshop. You can do this when you register for the conference or at a later date.

Workshop Description:
We believe that bringing design attention to the context of design teams and design leadership is critical for the success and sustainability of our practice and industry. At a time when our ways of working, our design remit and materials change, we need to pay attention to supporting and growing our teams to successfully embrace these new challenges. As organisations continue to value the importance of design, more and more companies act on the need to establish a design team. These teams have specific needs to thrive in an organisation and to create value for the business and users as well as happy designers.

In this workshop, open to everybody, but aimed primarily at senior practitioners, team leaders, new managers and managers new to design, we will share our learnings and the techniques we have developed over the years.

The workshop is structured as a series of short lecture-type modules on:
- leadership styles
- building vs inheriting a team
- hiring
- culture and fit
- team structure
- motivation
- retention
- conflict resolution
- skills assessment
- skills development
- mentoring/coaching
- letting go (post exit-interview)

Modules will be interspersed with practical exercises, to reinforce the notions demonstrated — attendees will start collaborating from the get-go, with groups forming fictional organizations that will be the backbone of the exercises they will participate in.

Takeaways:
- Understand the traits of an effective design team
- Learn about different leadership styles and management strategies
- Learn how to hire, motivate and keep design teams happy
- Take-away methods to assess team members' skill sets and structure