I learned so much about asking these several years studying and working in the U.S. If I didn’t get chance to prepare for the Design Thinkathon, I would never experience the second definition of ask, which I am so grateful for. So, here I want to talk about two kinds of ask, one if asking questions, the other is ask (inquire) for something.
The person that I knew who knows how to ask good questions and continue a very good conversation is Daniel Disselkoen. He used to be an exchange student at MCAD from Netherlands. I have seen him interacting with strangers and carry incredible conversations with his endless questions. I actually accidentally came across him on the street last year at SXSW in Austin, where he speaks about his new App design concept to a huge audience. Of course, he is a designer who has natural curiosity and want to figure out things. I learned so much about how to getting to know people and ask good questions through many of my interview experiences with companies and academic settings like critique for students’ works. My collague Dr. Ron Duggins also told me he used questions as a powerful way to communicate with his 9 year old daughter. From those questions he asked, he actually persuaded her to continue finishing her pinion lessons without quitting all of a sudden. We can ask questions with strangers, friends or closet family relatives, communicating through questions and trying to understand each other is the best way to practice empathy and build trust.
Another kind of ask is to ask for something. Here I want to thank Kristian Andersen from Studio Science. I was lucky to carry a phone conversation with him and Nathan during my early stage when planning for the Design Thinkathon. The hardest thing planning for the event in the very beginning is to raise fund as I never had any experience doing that. I never had the courage to ask for money because I was fear of rejection. However, I have sent some inquiries about the event and have gotten quiet a lot of emotional support. Then, what’s the next step? How can I keep bugging people and organizations about the event that they will come to me or call and say: “Hey, that’s a very cool event, do you want any sponsors? How much do you want?” Sounds ridiculous isn’t it? That is how I think sponsorship happens, just wait until magic occurs...
I was so glad that I asked Kristian about how to raise fund. His words was so direct, straightforward and impressive that stuck in my head ever since. Needless to say, that was one of the most effective piece of advices that I got because I was able to complete the total fund raising in a speedy and successful way within less than a week!
Basically, Kristian told me something exact like what Steve jobs says below from Inc. “ You will have to ask, boldly and specifically. No one can avoid specific asking, since they have to say yes or no answer. You have to tell them how much you want, for what and how can they help. The worst is to be rejected, but that helps too, because then you are avoiding the wrong person and can move on to the next target. If you only chat about your event, everyone will support emotionally, and when they get back home, forget about it, no one remembers anything!”
I have to say successful people don’t just share one or two things in common. Mr. Andersen’s words resonate so well with what Steve Jobs put together.
"Now, I've actually always found something to be very true, which is most people don't get those experiences because they never ask. I've never found anybody who didn't want to help me when I've asked them for help.I've never found anyone who's said no or hung up the phone when I called-I just asked. And when people ask me, I try to be as responsive, to pay that debt of gratitude back.Most people never pick up the phone and call, most people never ask. And that's what separates, sometimes, the people that do things from the people that just dream about them. You gotta act. And you've gotta be willing to fail, you gotta be ready to crash and burn, with people on the phone, with starting a company,with whatever. If you're afraid of failing, you won't get very far”——Steve Jobs
To summarize, the power of “ask” is two level of concepts: one is about asking good questions, because we all need to learn (new people, things, field), the second level is know what we want and ask for help. We have to set plans for our goals. With specific plans, ideas and knowledge in mind, in combine with such great power of asking, we can achieve anything we want to.
They do have an individual video about me from the fellowship program. Love the experience from last summer in Indy. Thanks Kristian, Nathan and Studio Science fellows.
Studio Science is a Indy base design consultancy agency. My intention of wanting to explore the business design world and learn from the fast-pace industry brought this opportunity of a fellowship program at SS.
Upon my arrival at Indy, I was really impressed with what Studio Science have prepared for me. A brand new furnished apt in downtown area with a really nice welcome bucket filled up with presents. Such an open minded, creative and caring culture from SS! While other people may consider such a sudden opportunity a disruption of the current system, Studio Science accepted it and build upon it. I am lucky and felt so honored to be the first person who are part of fellowship. Studio Science really sees opportunities everywhere from any kinds of occurrences and try to build systems and new ideas around it with such open and innovative mind set. People that I have talked at Studio Science have the same open mind set and are willing to share anything to each other. That’s probably why they are growing so fast in the past years with a great team and creative environment. I cannot help think about “Accept” and “Ideate”, the two very vital steps in the beginning of design process seem have been immersed completely into their culture. I look forward to the later development of the program and interesting things that can happen during the summer.
On this first day, I was trained with other new arrivers on many platforms and tools that Studio Science uses. Technology plays an very important role here. SS utilizes a lot of online system that help organize, manage and communicate the team. Tools that can make things easier, faster and more productive are highly welcomed in nowadays creative company. Slack for example, becomes this fastest growing communicating tool replacing emails, Skype or basecamp. It makes team conversation fast and transparent which contributes a lot to efficient project collaboration.”A communication system offering such radical transparency may shock many workers. Some may resent the idea of their bosses or far-flung colleagues peering in on their discussions.” Farhad Manjoo wrote from NY Times. However, within a business, the more transparency there is, the more trust can be built within the company as we don’t feel things were hidden from us on purpose. Probably “be open and transparent” are the big take aways from the first day at Studio Science. The other system “Harvest” they use to track project hours have similar attributes: all projects team, process, time and budget are open to everyone within the system. Those tools and platforms really helps the whole agency to manage and grow, even as individuals or in the academic area, we should always be open to new technologies and systems that can make us work smarter and faster.
As I see how different systems plays a different role at SS, I also have a system in mind that can help organize my own thoughts learned from different sections of the business. I will see how it works.
A. Overview: clients, connection, marketing, profits.
B. Management: projects, team, communication
C. Individual: work, tasks, skills, function
D. Culture: activity, habits, mind-set, personality
