Lessons from 15 Years in Interdisciplinary Teams

Working across disciplines has taught me that the most innovative solutions emerge when we bridge the gap between different fields of expertise. After 15 years of leading and participating in interdisciplinary teams, I've gathered some insights about what makes these collaborations succeed or fail.

The Power of Shared Language

One of the first challenges in any interdisciplinary team is communication. Specialists develop their own jargon, frameworks, and mental models. When a software engineer, a biologist, and a designer try to work together, they often find themselves talking past each other.

The most successful teams I've been part of invested time upfront to develop a shared vocabulary. This doesn't mean everyone needs to become an expert in everyone else's field. Rather, it means creating a common set of terms and concepts that everyone understands and can reference.

Respect for Different Types of Expertise

In technical fields, there's often a hierarchy of perceived expertise, with quantitative disciplines like mathematics and computer science at the top. This can lead to dismissing or devaluing insights from fields that are seen as "softer" or less rigorous.

I've learned that this hierarchy is not just wrong; it's actively harmful to innovation. Some of the most important breakthroughs in our work came when we took seriously the expertise of designers, writers, and social scientists. Their perspectives often revealed blind spots in our technical thinking.

The Role of Translation

In every successful interdisciplinary team, there are people who serve as translators between different domains. These individuals may not be the deepest experts in any one field, but they understand enough about multiple domains to help specialists communicate effectively.

I've often found myself in this translation role, helping engineers understand the needs and constraints of musicians, or helping scientists understand the implications of different software architectures. This role is rarely formalized but is essential to team success.

Embracing Productive Conflict

When people from different disciplines work together, conflict is inevitable. Different fields have different values, methods, and success criteria. The engineer wants efficiency, the designer wants usability, the business person wants marketability.

The best teams don't avoid these conflicts; they embrace them as opportunities for innovation. By explicitly acknowledging different perspectives and working through the tensions, teams can arrive at solutions that satisfy multiple criteria in ways that no single discipline could achieve alone.

The Importance of Iteration

Interdisciplinary work rarely gets things right the first time. Different mental models need to be reconciled, and unexpected interactions between domains need to be discovered and addressed.

I've found that successful interdisciplinary teams embrace iteration as a core practice. They build quickly, test, learn, and refine. This approach allows the team to discover the right integration of different disciplines through experience rather than trying to design it perfectly upfront.

Conclusion

Interdisciplinary collaboration is challenging but immensely rewarding. In a world of increasing specialization, the ability to bridge disciplines is becoming more valuable. The most interesting problems and opportunities often lie at the intersection of different fields.

If you're working in or leading an interdisciplinary team, invest in building shared language, respect all forms of expertise, value the translators, embrace productive conflict, and commit to iteration. These practices won't eliminate the challenges, but they will help your team navigate them more effectively and unlock the full potential of diverse expertise.