07 Digital Age

21.04.2015

Challenge Garage: Solving real challenges in collaboration

Joan Ras et al.

The society of the future will be based around talent. A society that is more competitive, more liquid, but which also offers more opportunities and flexibility to discover uncertain routes that were unthinkable until now.

Knowledge will become a small percentage of the social and work demands made by organisations in this society. Skills and personal career management will be the foundation to “survive” in the society of the future, which we are beginning to sense currently. Here are some of the key skills required:

• Working in multidisciplinary teams (in most cases these will be international).
• Social and emotional skills, both on an individual and group level.
• Technological skills will become as important as reading and writing.
• Effective communication and leadership.
• The ability to collaborate and share.
• Creativity and entrepreneurial spirit.
• The ability to find, process and select information (especially as the digital world provides us infinite information).

We have worked on all these 21st century skills via the project Challenge Garage, creating a process which started with the Catalan company Mango launching a challenge. The aim was to solve the challenge in a groundbreaking, fresh, viable way that had business impact.

The world is online/offline. That is, every business, administration, project and person must work in these two dimensions. We applied the same methodology for this project which had face-to-face workshops on the one hand to take advantage of human, social factors. On the other hand, the collaborative innovation online platform Induct enabled teams to work online in a flexible, open manner. Somehow technology has expanded the experience of education and teamwork beyond the physical walls of the classroom.

In the first workshop we delved into the challenge launched by Mango to understand and explore all possibilities. The second step was having fun, involving creative chaos and ideas. We managed to get students to think “out of the box”, making them think differently by using creative methodologies. Then we had to roll up our sleeves and create an impactful project to resolve the challenge, providing differential value and innovation. Finally, the best teams presented their projects to Mango and the attending audience in an elevator pitch format.

We are already preparing the next edition with better and more ideas, and new challenges to motivate students to think differently and work collaboratively. Societat de la Innovació (Induct) develops projects for universities and schools where key skills are the most important element. Working on skills and technology will be the defining factor for making professional profiles meet the requirements of the near future.

Joan Ras, Teacher of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, UPF. Parthner and CEO, Induct
Héctor Gardó, Consultan Open Innovation – Head of education projects at Induct SEA, S.L.

Joan Ras et al.

Joan Ras et al.

Teacher of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, UPF. Parthner and CEO, Induct

http://www.sociedaddelainnovacion.es

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