Farai Madzima, Keynote

In the early 2000’s design systems changed the way we work. We shifted from designing pages to designing systems of components. We gained new tools and ways of seeing. Those tools prepared us to handle the scale and complexity that comes with designing for every device, everywhere. In 2020 many folks have had to work from home (or live at work depending on how you see it). We are reminded that work and life are connected in complex ways. What does it mean to be in a team today? The definition of a team just as a group of individuals while ignoring their context is no longer adequate to describe the changes we've experienced. Nor will it help us to make teams more resilient in our uncertain future. What if, like we did with design systems in the early 2000’s, we shifted the way we see teams? Not as groups of individuals, but as systems of collaboration. How would we tackle our challenges with diversity, inclusion, remote work, and effectiveness? In this talk Farai will show how the systems thinking tools we use in our design projects can help us to understand, structure and manage our team systems in ways that produce lasting positive change. The future of working together lies in seeing teams as systems of collaboration. Let’s talk about how to do that.