Design-based change management

Abstract

Strategic changes in an organization will face challenges not only related to the changes as such but also in how the vision of the future is interpreted and understood by the organization. Visual design is an area of study that may help with change management research by facilitating the management of dynamics in a change process as well as the communication process.

Introduction

Change management is not the table where you see a lot of designers. But I believe designers can add a lot to the strategy and process of change management. Many of the tactics and skills that designers use and have can be very valuable to change management processes.

Designers are generally change-makers—someone who devises strategies for transforming undesirable conditions into desirable ones. As a result, when present circumstances are no longer favorable, designers become excited. Disruptions reveal what is no longer desired and what is eager to emerge. The challenge is to interpret the disruptions and figure out what message it’s attempting to convey. It is a matter of your perception of how and whether you comprehend it. Design is the process of getting to the desired state. The new scenario must be planned out. The first two phases of a typical double-diamond design process are concerned with defining the problem to be solved. The second diamond is all about coming up with ideas and putting them into action.

Little by little, we’re reaching a stage where the distinction between design and business problem-solving is becoming increasingly blurred. Separating the two feels weird to me at the moment. I’m sorry, but I can’t think like that anymore. Design, in my opinion, is evolving into a new style of thinking and doing that can be applied to any business challenge. Change management is one of the areas where I’m experimenting with the design method.

Organizational change can be compared to product change. It is also a design process. How a change is introduced to users (customers or employees) is as important as the change (product, process, organization) itself. It is therefore crucial not only to properly design and implement the change or innovation but also to properly design and manage the experience around that change. This means that change managers and designers best start flirting with each other.

Organization as a limiting factor

You’re likely to run into organizational difficulties if you pursue the design thinking and service design approach far enough. When you know what the user wants, what technology is accessible and what the company’s goals are, you’re faced with two organizational problems. The first is project management: agility, interdisciplinary co-creation and management. The other is a company’s overall culture, mentality, strategy and structure. If you accomplish everything else properly, the organization becomes the limiting factor for project acceptance, success and engagement. If your objective is to provide outstanding service, then organization design is a logical extension of design.

The design world and its environment are rapidly evolving. Clients need variation as do the firms that provide design services. There is a lot of repositioning going on as well as mergers and acquisitions. The context in which design must operate is changing as a result of technological, societal and business advancements. The new design environment is being shaped by themes such as accountability, agility, digitalization and new services such as design thinking and service design.

Three ways design can help change management

I’m experimenting with the designer’s approach to change management in client projects and internal initiatives. So far, I’ve discovered different ways that design, as well as the designer’s tools, thoughts and talent, may assist.

1. Make it user-centered

The first idea that came to me was to consider the organization as a service. All aspects of a company, including vision, strategy, project management, values, KPIs, human resources and so on, should be built with the users of this service in mind. Employees are the users of the service called organization. Instead of the other way around, the organization should be built to serve the employees. You can make the organization more user-centered if you make this conceptual adjustment. You may start with company objectives or with research on employee needs. The same balance of user demands, business objectives and technical boundaries that applies to product and service design may also be applied to the design of organizations. An organization is made up of several elements, each of which may be built with the user in mind. And technology is used to fuel a lot of the organizational components. As with every design job, the same practical–practicable-desired balance must be established.

2. Make things concrete

Another designer’s way that can contribute to change management processes is by making things concrete. Apart from primitive visualizations such as org charts, organization is a very abstract concept. Strategy, governance, structure, culture, etc. are all things that are hard to define and therefore hard to discuss. It is difficult to determine what we mean exactly when we discuss abstract subjects. There is a lot of openness. This makes it easy to disagree because people can retreat to personal opinions. At the same time, it’s too easy to agree if things are not clear. Designers can bring clarity, as with any project in which they participate. The whole power of concepts like design thinking lies in the fact that designers add value to processes by making things. Making things makes discussions clearer and more focused. Making things allows for a different type of learning. An organization is not a product, so it’s hard to design real objects. But you can make things more concrete nonetheless. You can work on mental images by visualizing the problem, the context, the system and the solutions. You can also design concrete actions, behaviors and systems just like you are designing products and services.

3. Be bold

Boldness, being daring, the desire to color beyond the lines and the inherent need to think outside the box are some of the fundamental qualities that designers bring to the table. Change is at the heart of design. It pays to explore outside your comfort zone if you want to alter things. It is a designer’s responsibility to confront, reinterpret and give an outside viewpoint in every design effort. Designers understand that doing something unusual once in a while is a smart approach. The weird thing you offer isn’t always a good answer, but it does stimulate additional possibilities. Designers make interventions like this all the time. They question and observe. They do it to gain knowledge and fresh ideas. Change management programs, like any other design project, are no exception. They gain as much as any design endeavor from eccentric interventions. To alter things, things need to be shaken up, feathers need to be ruffled and wild ideas need to be tried. Things will not change if you stay in your box and continue to think, act and behave the same way you have always done. The primary challenge of organizational transformation will not be solved unless things change.

Introducing new ideas, concepts and methods of doing and thinking can cause confusion, annoyance and conflict. The issues are minor when it comes to developing visual objects. But when working on organizations, the change is closer to the people, and the conflict might be more intense. However, I believe that if we can apply the same ‘designer-boldness’ to change management initiatives, we can do amazing things.

A Designer’s approach to modern change

One of the most difficult aspects of change management is ensuring that everyone knows what is at risk, why the project was started and how it will be implemented. How can we bring this transformation to life in just 12 minutes of attention span that your employees may credit to your company? You have one ace in your sleeve: visual communication.

“Design is change and change is design.”

We receive more and more mails; guidelines grow like mushrooms. Social media have become the new vectors of information. And today the office has been moved to our homes. This is why we talk about the ‘never off culture’. But managers still need to make themselves heard to convince and motivate their teams and align them to any changes: in daily business, concerning their attitudes to work, tools, strategy, etc.

Nowadays, our information consumption seems to follow the same trend as our meals: we are becoming less and less inclined to spend time reading newspapers or voluminous reports and much prefer snackable content. Say goodbye to words and welcome images.

An?image is processed 60,000 times faster?by our brains than a text. We all know that the messages linked to understanding and accepting change are not easy to get across at any time without adding any additional obstacles. Visual communication or information design can help to create coherence as well as improve the employee experience. Surely, this is a win-win!

Visual communication effectiveness

To grasp this concept, you must examine a visual message for its aesthetic attractiveness and/or the amount of information it conveys or its functional representation. Because we are all visual animals, well-prepared visual support must be both useful and appealing. In fact, visual receptors account for 95 percent of our interaction with the outside world.

The material in question becomes easier to understand and keep when it is combined with a high level of knowledge and functionality in an appealing style. When utilized in a corporate setting, such support material will not only guarantee that essential ideas and information are more quickly absorbed and implemented by the employees in question, but it will also urge them to adopt a certain attitude or perform a specific action as a consequence.

Two areas where designers have to step up their game

Designers can add a lot of value in change management programs. But next to being able to transfer your tool-, mind- and skill set to a different field, you need to learn a couple of new things as well.

1. Systems thinking

Any organization, regardless of size, is a complicated ecosystem. You can’t design or alter them in their entirety. Interventions alter ecosystems by adding or altering components, observing the results and then repeating the process. There are areas of leverage in any system where little adjustments can lead to huge changes. The key is to identify these leverage points and create the appropriate actions. The capacity of design to transform an organization’s ecology is increasingly defining its effect. The designer’s working environment must be included into the design. Designs can no longer function in a vacuum. Designers must comprehend the ecosystems in which businesses operate and how to locate leverage points. Everything is connected. Because they don’t link to the ecology of organizations, many designs wind up in drawers or aren’t properly utilized. The importance of systems thinking cannot be overstated. Even more so if you’re the one who creates the organizations. In such a situation, you’re affecting the ecosystem as a whole. However, you can’t create the ecosystem from the ground up. You must create interventions and components. The greater the leverage of the point you design, the greater the design’s effect.

2. Organization knowledge

It helps to understand the field while creating for it, just like it does when designing for any other area. Organizations are a medium, a topic and a subject where there is a great deal of expertise. Designers, in my opinion, contribute value to change management initiatives by bringing a fresh perspective. However, having a rudimentary understanding of organizational models, theories and so on is beneficial. Bringing in a new viewpoint requires not just retaining a beginner’s mind but also some fundamental understanding. Designers, in my opinion, may help with the essential innovation in organizational philosophy. However, in order to be effective at this, you must first learn the subject. An organization designer must immerse himself in organizational knowledge, just as a chair designer can only come up with fresh, inventive methods to work with wood by immersing himself in the topic.

What are the next steps?

1. Immerse yourself in the context
2. Understand the request
3. Structure the information
4. Produce a concept for the support material
5. Develop
6. Propose support that is useful, usable and used

Sources:

• Design Leadership Notebook?–?@ Dennis Hambeukers Strategic UX Design Consultant @ Zuiderlicht / Design Leadership Forum Member @InVision?
• Visual Communication in the Context of Change Management @ Nouvels Obs de 2016 – the period of time most (French) employees can concentrate on something at work without being interrupted.
• Visual management for a dynamic strategic change – Yvonne Eriksson @?Journal of Organizational Change Management
• Service Design, the new Change Management? @ UX Collective . Sara Coene