Big problems call for big brainpower
Collaborative design sessions allow everyone the opportunity to reflect on and discuss the problems and solutions at-hand. Decisions, feedback cycles, and meetings typically spread out over months or years happen in days.
What Comes together in Collaborative design
Collaborative design facilitation brings together four key elements that aim to overcome political, rational, and emotional barriers to solving the problem at hand:
1
People
We ask everyone invested in the problem and the desired solution to be present. At every step, we create connections that go beyond the work. When people help create a solution, they’re more likely to see it through.
2
Knowledge
Decisions are made based on the understanding of the current state and participant experiences. Collective intelligence and perspectives combine to unlock fresh thinking and new ideas.
3
Breathing Room
Creating an environment that allows a group to slow their thinking is an important element of collaborative design. It creates space for what needs attention and allows us to repurpose aspects of our work and recognize risks.
4
Process
The Earnest Journey team will partner with your team in advance to define your needs. Earnest Journey will then design the work based on a method we will guide and facilitate. All your team has to do is focus on the work itself.
Teams get feedback on key community health impact areas for funding.
Middle School teachers identify strengths and strategies for success in the next school year.
Community leaders prepare to give feedback on community impact program ideas.
A nonprofit creates a strategy for a new property, building, and programming.
A group builds a 5-year timeline with tactics to move forward across clearly defined objectives.
Adults and youth generate a portfolio of topics that can create a city that works for everyone.
Stories of Progress
Everything with intention
“Thank you all for such an engaging, thought-provoking, and inspiring experience! Everything about the design experience from the clear instructions leading me to the center to the warm and inviting smiles I saw from the staff and facilitators when I initially walked into the delicious lunch and snack selection to the background music (that playlist was awesome!) to the well-planned process for engagement — everything was intentional and helped me even further shift my thinking about what is possible in youth-adult partnerships. THANK YOU!!!”
— D’Yuanna, Maternal Child & Adolescent Health Director
Lasting progress on big issues
“A sincere and heartfelt thank you to you and the entire Earnest Journey team for engaging with us in collaborative design and for creating a memorable, productive virtual design session. None of us knew exactly what this would look like, but I think the sponsor team’s reflections of gratitude at the conclusion of the last meeting spoke volumes about our appreciation for the process. It was hard, but we got there and that is all attributable to your leadership.”
— Erica, Chief Community Impact Officer
Encouraging community voice
“You all were very intentional about encouraging community voice. The summit has the potential of not a ripple, but a wave.”
— Inez, Educator
Let’s work together.
Whether you’re working to change the world, your city, community, or your organization, let’s talk possibilities.
Great minds think together.
Real growth for practicing teams. Start here.
Co-Design Workshop: How It Works and When You Need It
Strategies For Effective Team Collaboration
Leading in Complexity
Handpicked brainpower.
Need outside help? Earnest Journey can build a custom problem-solving team from an international workforce of artists, designers, facilitators, educators, researchers, technologists, writers, social activists, and entrepreneurs. These professionals all collaborate at the intersection of government, business, environment, and technology to tackle the most pressing challenges of our time.
Let’s discuss what’s possible when the right creative thinkers are in the room.