As part of the Design & Critical Thinking community, Krasi Bozhinkova and Daiana Zavate from Owtcome agency organised a deep collaboration workshop for the community to reflect on the concept of “Support”. Here are the insights gathered through the session, during which two groups collaborated to create a shared understanding of the concept.

An introduction to collaborative drawing — Courtesy of Owtcome.

The Workshop.

Support

What does it take to recognize support? Often, our expectations often get in the way because the timing between our desires and needs is off.

Support is abundant to those who are open to receiving it.

Intent

We decided to discuss the concept of support in a non-traditional way: what happens when we bring to the surface our experiences and combine them together to tell a new story?

Drawing Collaboration

Using conditional design, two teams worked together to uncover different nuances of support.

Outcome

In the absence of a given script, the teams naturally arrived at their own story of support.

Story One.

Drawing Collaboration of Team 1.

Support in a work context

How do we understand support in the work environment?

Complexity of support

  • The gap between the giving and receiving side can only be closed with trust and honesty.
  • Complex problems don’t have logical solutions; support is a distributed network.
  • Managing expectations, timing, and independence is a key part of responsible support.

Story Two.

Drawing Collaboration of Team 2.

Support on a personal level

What are our personal experiences with support?

Experiences of support

  • Support doesn’t always imply doing; being present is enough.
  • To tap into the abundant flow of energy requires a selfless intention; support can’t be forced.
  • Non-human support is a special medium through which we give ourselves permission to receive support.

Outcome.

Drawing is not what one sees but what one can make others see. –Edgar Degas

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Thanks for reading!

And special thanks to Owtcome for organising such an interactive and interesting way to collaborate towards shared knowledge, inclusiveness and diversity in thinking styles. 🙏