8.‘Mulder Exchange Kit’
To work with the Cyclic Sharing Knowledge Model, a special toolbox has been developed: 'Mulder Exchange Kit'. With the aim of offering practical tools for effective project-based collaborations in the cultural sector. The Toolbox is inspired by different models and meaning of colours. For example by a 'Product Development Roadmap', 'The maker typified' by Tabo Goudswaard and Jetske van Oosten and the 'Praktijkboek Procesmanagement' by Carolien Kars and Hans Evers. On the horizontal axis, the primary and secondary colours recur with the same meaning as in the Cyclic Knowledge Sharing model. On the vertical axis you can see the different roles with their own interests, on the horizontal axis you can see the responsibilities in combination with the phase of the project. Each role has different responsibilities and influences within the creation process. There may also be gaps in responsibilities when working on projects. These gaps can occur unintentionally if team members' original job descriptions are unclear or if they are involved in other tasks by others. Once these gaps are identified, this becomes the starting point for any reshuffling of the team. You put team members back into their assigned roles and consider who should take over the additional tasks.
'A role is a coherent set of tasks that can be performed by one or more individuals, and has a clear contribution to the outcome of a (part of) the organization. A role is a reasonably defined piece of a process/task in the work that a team does. (C. Kars, Hans Evers, 2006)'.
Above phases one, two and three is a ‘flexible loop arrow’. This is because reality is too erratic for a linear process. There must remain room for (renewed) problem analysis with (renewed) goals and corresponding (renewed) interventions. Good team players move between these two poles. A combination of short-term flexibility and creativity with long-term planning and goal orientation.
Indeed, a linear approach has the danger of rigidity in the process, which tends toward product orientation and protocol. On the other hand, too much focus on the cyclical-iterative approach has the danger of too much openness, where there is "only communication" (Doerbecker, 1979). The exchange kit is enriched by stage gating. The five different stages of the project are closed with gates. The gate is opened only when the predefined requirements are met. Thus, each stage has a common goal. In projects, there is often great pressure to start the next stage, despite the fact that the requirements have not actually been fully met. Understanding these roles with their own interests and responsibilities linked to the various phases of the project can help effectively navigate the cultural making process and achieve effective collaborative goals:
- Artistic leader
- Business leader
- Production team
- External parties.
Each role provides three concretely defined deliverables that are enriched with more information at each step. From that, I decided that there are also three key tasks, three key resources and three aims. For 'further research' a selection tree could be worked out based on the 'Mulder Exchange Kit'. Helps to get even better insight on amount of complicated choices and to find the best option.
