What is a d.team?

The d.school is a home for people who are passionate about tackling big, messy, ambiguous, real-world problems. These problems are far too difficult to take on alone. That's why we band together in multi-disciplinary, radically-collaborative, innovation-driven, design teams—or d.teams for short.

d.team doesn't stand for "dream team"

Working in d.teams inevitably brings up personal and interpersonal challenges. Our emphasis at the d.school is on dealing with these challenges in real time, not setting them aside as a separate issue to be studied. How do you work with people whose approach to problem-solving is different from your own? How is leadership negotiated on a team with a flattened hierarchy? What are the blocks to creative flow and how do you dissolve them? We've learned that the first step is legitimizing team conversations and creating a safe space to recognize that team dynamics are an integral part of interdisciplinary work.

The d.shrink team—psychologist Julian Gorodsky and designer Peter Rubin—study d.teams in their natural habitat, publish materials, and work directly with the d.school community to facilitate open and honest communication.

The formula for d.team success?

d.team dynamics isn't rocket science. Your inner astrophysicist won't get very far by quietly analyzing a gnarly team situation. We've found that happy and successful d.teams have a culture of speaking up and getting personal. It's more important to have courage and communicate openly than to be overly concerned about saying just the right thing.

Even so, there are skills you can learn to improve your team experience. We conduct d.teams training modules in various d.school courses and elsewhere. We also offer a weekly workshop in the Winter and Spring for those who want to dig deeper. Students experience firsthand that resolving “team” challenges is about understanding yourself and your team’s dynamics and then taking action to actively design your team experience. Learn more at dshrink.stanford.edu.