Creative Chaos

1. Creative Chaos
Making the Magic
Drew Davidson

2. Creative Production
• Design & Development
• Communication & Collaboration
• Leadership & Management
• Schedule & Budget
• Trust & Respect

3. Creative Chaos
• Ambiguous Ideas & Uncertain Results
• Rapid Prototyping & Iterative Design
• Flexible Process & Comfort with Unknowns

4. Making Stuff
• Intellectual Property
• Not Ideas, What is Created
• Sharing Development
• Do the Work, not What They Want

5. Making the Magic
• New, Useful, Good
• Design Process
• Problem Solving
• Critical Creation

6. Entertainment Technologies
• Games, Animation, Theme Parks, Museums, Augment Reality, Mobile,
Robotics, Interactive Performances, Websites, Film, CrossMedia…
• Education, Training, Health, Medical, Civics, Entertainment…
• And More…

7. How?

8. CMU Tepper Study of ETC
• Laurie Weingart
• Sr. Assc. Dean of Education & Carnegie Bosch Professor of Organizational
Behavior & Theory, Tepper, CMU
• Gergana Todorova
• University of Miami
• Kenneth Goh
• University of Western Ontario

9. ETC Study Methods
• How Does Expertise Diversity Translate into Innovation?
• 60 ETC Projects (2008-2011)
• Teams Surveyed 4 Times during Semester
• Observations & Interviews
• Independent Ratings of Final Product

10. ETC Study Measures
• Team Processes
• Conflict & Communication
• Coordination & Leadership
• Faculty Ratings
• Innovation, Quality
• Useful, Usable, Desirable

11. ETC Study Results
• More Diversity Leads to:
• More Conflict during Process
• and
• More Useful, Usable, Desirable Products
• Higher Quality & More Innovation

12. Further ETC Data*
• Gender, Ethnicity, Work Experience
• Project Type, Team Size, Instructors
• Familiarity, Leadership, Valuing Diversity
*2014, Anna Mayo
CMU Tepper Doctoral Student

13. Creative Orchestration
• Creative Process is Inherently Chaotic
• Failures Happen, On-Going Challenge
• More Diversity is Better and Harder
• Process needs Support

14. Pro Tips

15. Valuing Diversity
• Gender, Sexual Orientation, Ethnicity, Socio-Economic, Culture, Religion,
Age, Disability, Expertise…
• Inclusive & Supportive
• Actions & Words
• Product & Process
• Discuss & Address
• Culture & Community
• Difference & Progress

16. Improv
• Yes and…
• Shaping Experiences
• Comfort with Chaos
• Something from Nothing
• Serve the Story

17. Feedback
• 10 years worth in 2
• Product, Process, Public Events
• From Faculty, Peers, Guests
• Daily, Weekly, Milestones
• When you’re screwing up, and nobody is saying anything to you anymore,
that means they gave up. - Randy Pausch

18. Workshops & Lectures
• Skills, Process, Strengths, Conflict Management, Playtesting, Aesthetics,
Design, Intellectual Property, Branding, Entrepreneurialism, Public Speaking,
Pitching, Interviews, Professional Communication, Portfolios, Resumes,
Critique, Analysis, Personal Health, Project Management, Agile
Development, Producing, Storytelling, Field Overview, Professional
Development, Life-Long Learning…
• And More…

19. People (Can) Suck
• Supervisor
• Client
• Colleagues
• Bureaucracy
• Public
• You

20. Responsibility
• For the Work
• For Dealing with Colleagues
• For Mistakes, Failures, Regrets
• For What You Don’t Know
• For Being Your Best

21. Comfortability
• With Responsibility
• With the Unknown
• With New Challenges
• With Failures
• With Yourself

22. Reputation
• Good Colleague, Good Team Member, Good Attitude
• Not How Smart of Talented, Not Better
• Continual Process, Manners
• Actions as Well as Words

23. Reputation
• Fun to Play With (Not, Have Fun Playing
• Quality, Quantity, Effort
• Be Good, Be Pleasant, Be On Time
• Awful - Average - Awesome

24. Collaboration

25. Not So Much

26. Collaboration
Co-Creation

27. Collaborative Jams
• Jammers
• Subject Matter Experts
• Jam - Prototype - Product
http://nowigetitjam.org

28. Less Talk, More Rock

29. Less Talk, More Rock

30. Less Talk, More Rock

31. Constraints
• Creativity Needs Context
• Yes and…
• Sometimes No
• Polish, not Perfect

32. Failure
• Learn From Mistakes, Develop Grit
• Fail Faster, Experiment, Explore
• Rapid Prototyping
• Iterate toward Solutions

33. Experience
• Ultimate Design Goal
• For the User, Player, Guest…

34. Transformational Experiences
• Design for Impact
• Creativity for Good
• Changes in Our Daily Lives

35. Transformational Games
Sabrina Culyba

36. Collective Intelligence
• Equal Contributions, Listening
• Empathy, Emotional Intelligence
• More Women
- Anita Woolley
Asst. Professor, Tepper, CMU

37. Teams
• Diverse & Balanced
• Group Deliverables
• Individual Processes
• Life-Long Learning

38. Granted
• ETC Study on CMU Graduate Students
• But…

39. Resonant Research
• Data on Diversity
• http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2014/11/179827-the-data-on-diversity/
• How Diversity Makes Us Smarter
• http://www/scientificamerican/com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-smarter/
• And so much more…

40. More Diversity Please
• Across Fields
• Education Leads to Diversity
• Diversity of People & Products
• Do It Together, Make More Magic, Change the World

41. Orchestrating Creativity
• Collaborative, Innovative
• Value & Embrace Diversity
• Creative Problem Solvers
• Comfortable Doing Things You’ve Never Done Before

42. Creative Chaos
• Diversity is Valuable & Challenging
• Supportive Orchestration
• Making The Magic

43. Thanks!
• Questions?
• drew@andrew.cmu.edu
• Goh, K., Goodman, P., & Weingart, L. (2013) Team innovation processes: An Examination of activity
cycles in creative project teams. Small Group Research, 44, 159-194.
• Weingart, L., Todorova, G., & Goh, K. Conflict Resolution as a Moderator versus Mediator of the Effects
of Task, Process, and Relationship Conflict on Team Outcomes. Eighth Annual Interdisciplinary Network
Group Research (INGRoup) Conference (Atlanta, GA), July 2013.
• Anita Woolley: http://www.anitawoolley.com