This blog post is guest written by Dr. Claudia-Santi F. Fernandes, Associate Director play2PREVENT Lab, Yale Center for Health & Learning Games and John Joy, Advanced Producer at Schell Games. It was originally published for the Academic Business Advisors blog on May 20, 2019. You can view it here.

What would we tell ourselves 6 months ago?

It is all about relationships. Our first Kickoff Meeting between the play2PREVENT Lab at Yale and Schell Games was intimidating for both sides. We had a challenging task: develop a digital interactive prototype that allowed students to assess their school climate and then empowered them to take action and improve it. Both teams consisted of sharp, organized, compassionate individuals who were also ready to work together to create this prototype for a school climate tool and game. Our teams had worked together before, but this was the first time we (John + Claudia) were working closely as team leads. What we didn’t know then, but we later learned, was we felt the same uncertainty about the other team. As our teams worked more closely together and got to know one another (and became friends), we began to show our vulnerabilities and opened ourselves up to learning from and listening to one another. The second we stopped being “Yale” and “Schell,” and were instead a group of committed individuals working with tough constraints, the path ahead became manageable. We were creating the most appropriate digital experience with our collective expertise. As a result of sharing our own vulnerabilities and encouraging openness, we developed a trusting bond that allowed the development of our work to truly shine.

After 6 months of development, we would tell past John and Claudia that these are the key ingredients to working on a multi-disciplinary team:

• Listen to one another and be solution oriented: Hiccups occur. What distinguishes successful working teams from unsuccessful ones is the ability to troubleshoot challenges expressed by members of the team and think about how to find solutions together.

• Respect the expertise of each organization: We value different opinions but trust the expertise of each team. When this happens, you also create space to access your own expertise to then build something together.

• Allow yourself to be vulnerable with one another: Ask questions. It is okay to not always know the answer!

• Invite collaboration with a focused purpose: Always have an agenda to stay on task but encourage teams to take time on their own to explore ideas more if teams are not ready to make a decision in that moment. Be sure to set deadlines for decisions to keep the project moving!

Pro-tip: Identify someone at work or in school by whom you are intimidated or have a hard time working with. Pause for a moment and think of this person as a neighbor or friend. Do you think you would you act differently around this person in this new context? What is one thing you could say to this person that you would say if this person were your friend or neighbor? Allow yourself to be authentically vulnerable and see how it feels for you.