This was a collaborative project that I worked on with Good Health Design, the Centre for Person Centred Research at AUT and Lab4Living at Sheffield Hallam University. The brief was to create a toolkit unlike any other—we had worked on a lot of collaborative projects with large organisations and we needed a toolkit that would make those collaborations easier. A toolkit that would reveal the true intentions of a group, their mindsets and their values without any awkwardness.

After many rounds of iteration and user testing we landed on Initiate.Collaborate. The end result is a self directed card game that is available to any group about to embark on a new collaboration. The game teaches you how to play as you go, it also breaks down any exisiting hierarchies and levels the playing field for everyone involved.

The game is fun to play, but also acknowledges that collaborations are difficult when you are working in a multidisciplinary environment with multiple stakeholders.

Teams work towards creating a project manifesto which is their guide and values map for how they will contribute to their collaboration. Individuals are aware of what is expected of them and the manifesto becomes a meeting point throughout the collaboration—a place to return to if things are veering off track.