Total Teamwork - Imagination Ltd.

In 1999, Imagination designers used teamwork to create the interior and exterior lighting for Disney's two cruise ships, Magic and Wonder. That same year, the company also redesigned the packaging for Ericsson's cell-phone products worldwide. It conceived, designed, and supervised the creation of two museum-size exhibits -- one about transportation and the other about communication -- at the Millennium Dome. And it managed the line at Skyscape.

So how has Imagination mastered the art of teamwork? "The culture at Imagination is this: You can articulate your ideas without fear," says Adrian Caddy, 34, the firm's creative director. That is not to say that no conflict exists within the company. As Caddy says, "Creative opinions are very strongly held."

Imagination's work style puts a premium on sharing information. Presentation, production, and construction deadlines are constantly looming; sharing ideas, raising problems, and offering suggestions only get the work done faster and better. Some of what makes Imagination so effective is structural in nature: Everyone attends all of the creative meetings; the IT guy sits between the lighting designer and the writer. Because so much of the company's work is done in-house, the design of a room, the lighting of that room, and the multimedia presentation in the room are all intertwined.

Imagination is deliberately nonhierarchical -- only four people have formal titles -- and on many projects, it's hard to tell who is in charge. But what looks like diffusion of authority, or even lack of authority, is in fact dispersal of responsibility: Since no one is in charge, everyone feels responsible for a project's success. The system also diminishes the existence of conventional power struggles. At Imagination, the competition lies in producing work that works, in coming up with suggestions that are better than those of your colleagues and your clients, in having your ideas taken seriously. Arguments between employees tend to be about things that matter -- as opposed to office size, job title, or how many people you supervise.

It is an atmosphere that invites metaphor. Staffers offer a variety of examples to describe the interdisciplinary environment that exists at Imagination. They compare it to an art college, a medieval round table, an idea factory, and an Arab bazaar.

The most apt metaphor, however, is a circus. The company occupies two Edwardian-era buildings that the firm bought and restored 10 years ago (the restoration won awards), and the buildings are now connected across a private alley. A white, Teflon-coated tarp covers the buildings and encloses a six-story atrium. "It is a bit like a circus," says Martin Brown, 31, a graphic designer. "We've got a lot of performers and a few clowns. Enough to make it funny."

Inside the Journey Zone

Britain's Millennium Dome is the result of six years of national discussion about how to mark the year 2000 -- six years punctuated by changing missions, changing visions, and changing governments. Its creation was controversial, and its early operation recently cost its head her job. But what all of this controversy overlooks is the fact that the Dome is absolutely spectacular. The soaring white building -- the largest dome in the world, made of canvas and oversize circus-tent poles -- is at once beautiful, awesome, and playful. Inside are 16 exhibitions, or zones: Mind, Faith, Body, Work, Money, Play, Journey, Talk, and so on. Each zone is an individual concept that is explored in its own area of the Dome.

At one point, Imagination was hired to run the entire Dome project. But, as politics and priorities changed, that role ended up in the hands of another corporation. In the end, however, Imagination was still involved with the project: It was hired by zone sponsor Ford Motor Co. to design the Journey Zone; by another zone sponsor, British Telecommunications PLC, to do the TalkZone; and by Sky to handle the queue problem.

The Journey Zone is a perfect example of the kind of work that Imagination does so well. It is a place that could only have been created in an environment where architecture, graphic design, history, the Internet, and writing constantly crisscross one another. Journey is a testament to the fruits of teamwork. Its instructional aspects are so entertaining that you don't feel lectured to. Its entertainment is so instructive that you don't feel pandered to.

The exhibit opens with a short film about why people take journeys. Images of reunions, departures, runners, tourists, and lovers alternate with silent text: "We journey ... " followed by phrases such as "to remember," "to taste the high life," "to explore," "to leave home," "to be together," "to be alone." As you pass through the early stages of the zone, it is easy to fall into a reverie. The space manages to connect prehistoric nomads to postindustrial skateboarders. Walking through, you learn things like the first time that horses were used for transportation in Europe (4500 BC) and the year that the stroke that we call the crawl was first used in swimming (2500 BC). Or that in the 1760s, extensive digging of canals in Europe lowered food prices. Images, video clips, artifacts, sound tracks, and models are mixed seamlessly to provide such interesting facts.