# Multidisciplinary teams are only important when constraints have changed “Multidisciplinary teams are important” is a suitcase handle phrase. Many multidisciplinary teams (and by extension generalists) are no more creative/productive/whatever than their counterparts. The difference (and when multidisciplinary teams are important) is when constraints have recently been relaxed. Multidisciplinary teams connect the knowledge of how the constraint has been relaxed with the knowledge what is constrained. [Example needed] Multidisciplinary teams enable discovery of relaxed constraints in the first place (some people have the hammers and some have the nails) Multidisciplinarity is necessary to take advantage of relaxed constraints but not sufficient - - - Ref: Generalists paper Suitcase handle mental model Adam Wiggins email <!-- #evergreen --> [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Multidisciplinary+teams+are+only+important+when+constraints+have+changed) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Multidisciplinary+teams+are+only+important+when+constraints+have+changed)