There’s a reason Tim Brown, CEO of the design firm IDEO, titled his book, Change by Design. There’s a reason Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management, titled his book, The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage.
Why? Because successful change happens by design.
Whether the change is a new product, service, process, or a massive cultural change, well designed changes are amazingly competent. Well designed change will draw people in. Where businesses fail is when they roll out a change with little or no involvement from those impacted and then wonder why their people are resisting the change. That’s where design thinking comes in.
So what is design thinking?
The term design thinking is a bit misleading. When I first heard the term my mind went to eclectic chairs, software design, mechanical design, architectural design, and so on. I definitely didn’t think about design as a competitive advantage when formulating strategy, problem solving, or tackling business issues. In layman terms, design thinking is a way to solve problems so we as brazen change leaders can design successful change. I would much rather have a set of tools that help me engage people in change than manage resistance. Managing resistance is no fun. Designing change that people ‘get’ is a much better space to be in.
Case in point, Procter & Gamble (P&G). In 2000 P&G missed wall street expectations two quarters in a row. On June 8, 2000, the board appointed A.G. Lafley as CEO. Lafley knew that the only way to remain competitive against brands that were taking market share was to become more innovative. Lafley appointed Claudia Kotchka as the first vice president for design strategy and innovation. Her challenge: embed design and innovation into the P&G culture. A massive challenge involving massive change. Kotcha turned to thought leaders in the design world−IDEO, Roger Martin, Patrick Whitney, and David Kelley. In doing so, Lafley and Kotcha turned P&G into an innovation machine by using the tools of designers to realize successful, massive change.
I share this story because change succeeds when change leaders come together and use the tools of a designer to engage people to participate in the change. The methodology and tools of design thinking are a way to create change, a way to move forward intentionally.
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Another way to think about this is that design is the process of figuring out what the customer or user wants and making something that meets that want. It also means optimizing aspects of the design to benefit the producer and the consumer. I think another message is pretty clear, be deliberate, you can't just wing it with change.
Excellent points Mark! Thanks for commenting.
~Melissa
I can't remember who said it, but think it is Japanese in origin since I came across it during my TQM experience, 'the best leaders are when the people say they did it themselves' which is about engaging people to the extent that they do it themselves and create momentum, rather than feel it is being done to them and creating the resistance. Change management of the former provides positive change experiences whilst the other produces the opposite, empowerment and enthusiasm vs disempowerment and fear. The change manager and the sponsor will have different experiences and focus for their 'change' activities more engaging and less resistance management. So agree with your take on this one. Mark;s comment is very customer needs oriented ie ensuring the design delivers the right product and achieves the value the customer is seeking.