Tell/Make/Engage: Actions for innovation

This paper describes the development of the Tell/Make/Engage (TME) method and storytelling techniques inspired by teaching graduate engineering and design students. The TME method is intended for use during the exploration, discovery and prototyping phases of the design process. It has also been applied as a research tool to understand group engagement in a collaborative industry/academia environment. By telling stories you make connections, develop new ideas and move your design process forward. The TME method makes explicit those emotional factors of design that otherwise remain unexpressed. It provides ways for codifying the impact of a story and understanding how this contributes to real progress. Drawing upon established methods in applied psychology, the TME method reflectively employs imagination, episodic memory, emotion in motivation, sensation and perception to paint a picture of future discovery. Storytelling can create a common vision by capturing truth. The context is based on analysis of four class prototypes and 2 seminar iterations. Implications for further work and appropriate uses of the approach for engineering education are discussed.