Avoiding Interference

Only team members may contribute ideas and create DI Challenge solutions. Help from non-team members, including Team Managers, is called Interference.

The Interference Triangle:

The Interference Triangle is a useful tool to help remember what Interference is, and in what ways Team Managers and other people are (or are not) allowed to help the team.

The Base of the Triangle consists of two corners: Skills and Challenge & Rules. These two corner support blocks are what teams have in common when they participate in the Destination Imagination program and process.

Skills are the special abilities that the participants already have and bring to the team along with the skills they learn while being a part of the team. Learning skills is an important and valuable part of the process of DI. Every team member’s participation in the program will someday end, but the skills learned will continue throughout life. It is not Interference for the team to be taught skills. In fact, it is the job of the Team Manager to facilitate the team members’ acquisition of skills. It is the job of the team to apply learned skills to a particular purpose or use in creating a Challenge solution.

The Challenge & Rules are the printed Challenge, the Rules of the Road and Published Clarifications. These are the documents that teams, Team Managers and Tournament Officials have in common. The Challenge requirements and limitations, and the rules in Rules of the Road are the facts by which all must abide. Understanding them and internalizing them is the job of the team, the Team Manager and the Officials. What does the Challenge say? What does it say in Rules of the Road? What are the Published Clarifications? Let’s request a Team Clarification! This is all learning that can be shared, should be shared, and is shared among teams, Team Managers and Officials.

The team’s solution is the team’s alone. It is something that the team members build from their acquisition of skills and from their understanding of the Challenge and rules. It is Interference for a Team Manager to be in the team’s Solution corner of the Triangle. Recognize and respect that the “top” is where team members reign!

For more details on the rules of Interference, please see Rules of the Road.