About Gretchen Anderson
Gretchen consults with clients to inform their product strategy and improve team collaboration skills. She is the author of Mastering Collaboration, from O'Reilly. She spent the first part of her career in design consulting for firms like frog design, Cooper, and LUNAR. Recently, she was Head of Design at PG&E, California’s largest energy company, she has led the design of the hardware and software of a next-generation surgical system, and served as VP of Product at GreatSchools.org. We're really looking forward to seeing her talk!
Workshop
Mastering Collaboration
In this session, we will look at the foundations of productive collaboration, and identify key areas you can help your team with. You will learn how to use space, virtual and physical to your advantage, how to set direction in a team, how to wrangle stakeholders, and how to communicate the evolution of your collaboration over time.
Who it is for:
This workshop is for those working in cross-functional teams who are looking to smooth out turbulent interactions and reduce friction within teams, or with stakeholders.
What we will cover:
- How collaboration works, and how it doesn’t
- Diagnosing issues with your team(s), troubleshooting your specific challenges
- Adapting the Environment for collaboration: using space, setting norms, defining roles
- Setting Direction: how to define objectives that support collaboration and help measure progress
- Exploring Solutions: how to help people generate and critique ideas in a group, designer developer collaboration tips
- Communication: techniques for storytelling and information management
- Creating Your Playbook to take back to your team
This workshop will be a lively, active session with practical advice for getting people to work together less painfully and more productively.