Reconciling Values in Multidisciplinary Design Teams through Structured Dialogue

Abstract

Value has been conceptualized differently across disciplines, while the negotiation of values is inherent to design collaboration. In many multidisciplinary design projects, professionals struggle to articulate or align values due to disciplinary differences, limited value awareness, and imbalanced value prioritisation, which can lead to communication difficulties or even collaboration failure. Reconciling diverse values and underlying motivations is therefore essential. This paper explores how structured dialogue can help participants in multidisciplinary design teams work towards value reconciliation. Using a qualitative approach, six structured value dialogues involving twenty participants were conducted, followed by twenty post-dialogue interviews to capture participants’ reflections. The findings reveal that structured value dialogue helped participants become more aware of their own values as well as those of others. By recognizing value differences and reinterpreting value tensions, participants developed a basis for value reconciliation, thereby fostering more conscious and cooperative communication within their multidisciplinary design practice.

Keywords:
Value · Value negotiation · Value reflection · Multidisciplinary design collaboration