Create Value for Others
Graphic by Nina Haugland and Elli Verhulst in Experts in teamwork handbook.
This exercise paves the for a project team to explore (diverge) and specify which actors might have an interest in the team’s idea, and what value the project could provide for these actors. This may later help the teams to choose an idea and to consider how they might involve the actors in the project development.
- Duration:
30 minutes (split into two parts)
- Focus:
The exercise is centered on identifying, analyzing, and integrating stakeholder perspectives into project development.
- Activity:
Group
- Keywords:
Stakeholders, Collaboration, Value creation, Interdisciplinarity
About the exercise
In the context of this excercise, value creation means creating value for others, beyond the value that the project has for learning in the team. It is important to point out that value creation in this context may involve several types of values:
- Value for individuals: health, safety, quality of life, well-being, freedom, engagement, self-realisation, development, and other benefits.
- Intellectual value: improving competence, developing new skills, ability to innovate, knowledge, intellectual property rights, and others.
- Economic value: financial capital, infrastructure, market position, ownership of infrastructure, market price of products and services, and others.
- Social value: relationships are established, strengthened or maintained, networks and communities are created, etc.
- Value for the environment: helping to reduce pollution or emissions, tackling climate challenges, reducing the use of resources, protecting nature, etc.
Will the students understand that one of them is a mole instructed by the educator to create division and tension within the group? This helps emulating potential difficulties in a real-world board setting. Luckily, they will get to do a second board meeting on Lecture day 2, to improve upon the mistakes they did on the first Lecture day.
Learning objectives
- Understanding stakeholder interests in a project.
- Exploring value creation and recognising different types of values (personal, social, environmental etc.)
- Enhancing collaboration.
- Improving decision making.
- Strengthening reflection and adaptability.
Preparation
Print the document “Create value for others” in A3 format – one form for each project idea to be assessed, about three forms for each team. Choose whether to use PowerPoint to present the exercise (suggestions for presentation are made available digitally before the start-up of the villages). Read the points on this page and the next two pages so that you are prepared for the exercise and for questions from the students.
The exercise has previously been used in MBA courses within Board Work and Board Management, with students from different backgrounds and disciplines.
Digital version: You can do this exercise digitally, using breakout rooms. However, this might require more attention to include all students in the discussion.
Implementation
Part 1
- Ask the teams to choose several ideas (2-4) that they would like to explore further (these may be the ideas they have brought with them from the exercise “Assessment of interdisciplinarity and benefit to society” (p. 157). Emphasise that this is a phase where it is desirable for the teams to open their horizons (diverge) to see what potential value the ideas have, and who might be interested in the ideas. Feel free to present the document “Creating value for others – example” (which is made available digitally before the start-up of the villages) so that students get an understanding of the exercise (five minutes).
- Hand out the exercise sheet “Create value for others” to the student teams (one sheet for each idea that they are to work further with and evaluate) and ask them to complete the three inner circles (project idea/problem, actors, and value creation). They can wait to complete the outer circle (involve in project) (10 minutes per project to be assessed). Important! The keywords on values are intended as examples to help the team to see the wide variety of potential values. The teams can be encouraged to use their own words for values that their idea may have for others.
- Ask the students to evaluate what has emerged so far. What do they now think about the project ideas? Based on an assessment of where the teams are in the process and what will be most useful to them, there are three possibilities based on point 3:
- A: Give the students freedom to manage their own time for work on the project. This gives them an opportunity to process their thoughts and the new perspectives they have gained through the exercise.
- B: Set aside time for joint reflection writing. It may be useful to start with personal reflection writing as mentioned in the tip on the next page. This may be relevant if you have made observations during the exercise that you think the team would benefit from reflecting on.
- C: Continue immediately with Part 2 of the exercise. This is suitable for teams that have decided on an idea.
Part 2
- Part 2 of the exercise is about how relevant actors can be involved in the project work, and is highly suitable when the students have chosen an idea and are going to plan the implementation of the project work.
Ask the students to complete the outer circle on the exercise sheet “Create value for others” where they already have filled in the innermost circles (10 minutes).
Tip
The exercise can provide some valuable connections between the project work and the process work in EiT. For this reason, it may be useful to ask the students to write personal reflections after the exercise. As they write, they may want to start with the following questions:
- How did the group dynamics influence the discussion while the team was doing the exercise?
- How did the group dynamics influence the assessments and decisions that were made in the team?
- Questions related to interdisciplinarity in the team may be relevant for team reflection, such as:
- Did the team members have varying thoughts about which values were essential to the idea?
- If so, what role did their academic background play in these differences?
Your Role
- You will be the process leader and keep track of the time. The facilitator team should feel free to distribute the student teams among them, so that they can observe the different teams and possibly provide spontaneous facilitation to them
Theoretical foundations
The exercise is based on the OVAM SIS (Sustainable Innovation System) Toolkit (OVAM, 2011) and Sustainable Value Mapping Tool (Bocken, Short, Rana and Evans, 2013). The exercise was developed and tested by Elli Verhulst, Sigrid Westad Brandshaug, Nina Haugland Andersen, Thomas Christian Espenes, Benjamin Toscher and Marte Konstad, through a pilot project supported by the Engage Centre of Excellence in Higher Education. This suggestion for carrying out the exercise in the village was designed by Sigrid Westad Brandshaug, Elli Verhulst, and Mette Mari Wold Johnsen in the Experts in Teamwork Academic Section and the ENgage Centre of Excellence in Higher Education at NTNU.
Time plan
Time
- Part 1: 20 minutes for evaluating one project idea (add another 10 minutes for each idea to be evaluated).
- Part 2: 10 minutes for evaluating one project idea.
When
In the start-up phase of the course, after brainstorming about different project ideas.
Key takeaways
Identifying key stakeholders helps align project ideas with real-world needs.
Understanding how different types of value (social, economic, environmental) enhances impact.
Effective stakeholder engagement strengthens project feasibility and execution.
Reflection on team dynamics and interdisciplinarity can improve decision-making and collaboration