Abstract

Either dealing with products, communication or services, design projects present an increased complexity that calls for the collaboration of multidisciplinary experts. This generates a large pool of creative ideas coming from different perspectives, which have to be stirred towards a concrete outcome. In the same time an important factor that leads to a successful project is the team management and the apprehension of the frictions that could influence the creative flow of the collaboration. After a review of several literatures which have taken into consideration the importance of conflict mitigation and the role of designers as process facilitator in the creative team, the paper intends to address the following question: what if the exercise of power and influence could lead to more innovative solutions, revealing meaningful contributions otherwise discarded in the effort to reach consensus? The main objective of the paper is to propose a different perspective on the creative design management, suggesting that controversy can be seen as an important factor, which has the potential to control the leadership within the team and reveal new alternatives in the design process.