No one was afraid

Now that GOV.UK is out the door I’ve been trying to catch up with my Instapaper backlog. One of the more recent pieces (yes, I’m way behind was Frank Cottrell Boyce’s wonderful description of working on the Olympic Opening Ceremony with Danny Boyle.

I particularly loved his description of the way the core team came together:

They worked so closely they were practically a hive mind. My job was to join up the ideas in a way that the non-hive dweller could understand.

Danny created a room where no one was afraid to speak, no one had to stick to their own specialism, no one was afraid of sounding stupid or talking out of turn. He restored us to the people we were before we made career choices - to when we were just wondering.

That sounds so much better than “cross-functional team.”