How Design Thinking Can Modernize Your Contingent Workforce Program

As we’ve been discussing throughout this year, digital technologies have undeniably shaped the future of business and society. Exponential technologies represent the prosperity and wellbeing the world will soon attain. And exponential organizations will be the catalysts and champions of these incredible boons. What makes this present shift unique, when compared to past breakthroughs, is that the emerging paradigm signals a convergence of digital and physical experiences. Rigid structures can no longer accommodate the elaborate interactions that will occur between technologies, stakeholders and talent categories in a given workplace. Those enterprises prepared to adopt a design thinking approach may find themselves better positioned to respond quickly to changing business dynamics while building a culture that thrives.

The Design Behind Design Thinking

Around 1969, Herbert A. Simon published his book The Sciences of the Artificial, which laid the groundwork for the concept of design thinking. This aesthetic and creative way of shaping a designer’s cognitive abilities to the application of the design process was retooled in the early 1990s as a new business philosophy, mostly related to the design engineering aspects of the booming tech industry. Instead of relying on the analytical approach of the scientific method -- a deconstructive means for breaking down and resolving problems -- design thinking encourages synthesis. It’s solutions-based and solution-focused.

Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking seeks to identify a goal, such as a sustainable future outcome, rather than an issue that needs fixing. It builds on ideas, diverse perspectives and brainstorming. It’s chaos-tolerant and supportive, intended to solicit input and participation while reducing the fear of failure. And that’s extremely important to the success of today’s business cultures.

Applying Design-Based Mindsets to the Modern Workplace

To innovate and progress, companies have realized that they need elasticity, diversity, openness and a sense of entrepreneurialism that infuses all the talent in the organization -- not just the executives responsible for developing the corporate vision. In short, creative mavericks and risk takers are essential throughout the rank-and-file. However, as author Kathryn Schulz wrote in her book Being Wrong, society may be creating a generation of people who are terrified to fail.

“In our collective imagination, error is associated not just with shame and stupidity but also with ignorance, indolence, psychopathology, and moral degeneracy.” The horror of not being perfect, combined with “modern modes of parenting and schooling obsessed with narrow versions of academic and career success” are making youth utterly risk-averse.

This is where design thinking shines. Not only does it work to simplify the increasingly complex interactions people must have with technology, intricate processes and non-traditional employment structures -- it does so through principles that emphasize empathy, prototyping and tolerance for failure. Harvard Business Review believes it’s “the best tool we have for creating those kinds of interactions and developing a responsive, flexible organizational culture.”

The Design-Centric Business Model

“There’s a shift under way in large organizations, one that puts design much closer to the center of the enterprise,” explained Jon Kolko in his 2015 examination of design thinkingfor Harvard Business Review. “But the shift isn’t about aesthetics. It’s about applying the principles of design to the way people work.” At its core, design thinking promotes four tenets:

• The human rule -- all design activity is ultimately social in nature.
• The ambiguity rule -- design thinkers must preserve ambiguity.
• The redesign rule -- all design is redesign.
• The tangibility rule -- making ideas tangible facilitates communication.

These ideals, despite their origin, transcend aesthetics and craft. We can apply the fundamental aspects of the philosophy to managing a blended workforce.

• The human rule. Building a talent culture based on empathy, emotional needs, professional aspirations, business objectives and socialized communication. Equally paramount, they create nurturing and risk-tolerant environments where suppliers and talent can share ideas and innovative concepts openly, without facing censure or blame.
• The ambiguity rule. Because they’re not delivering a physical product, and because people are diverse, staffing leaders understand that individuals don’t conform to absolutes or statistical estimates; they focus on potential, alignment with the mission and hiring for fit, then developing skills.
• The redesign rule. The best talent acquisition leaders commit themselves to ongoing continuous improvement initiatives, realizing that workforce programs are dynamic, changing and evolving.
• The tangibility rule. Through communications planning, data analysis and advanced reporting tools, staffing providers and hiring managers can transform conceptual program qualities like worker performance into realistic and measurable value.

Two years ago, Jon Kolko heralded the coming arrival of design thinking as the evolution of today’s business planning. However, as things now move at exponential rates, design-centric paradigms have changed, too. Consider a recent article by Mark Newcomer in The Next Web, in which he observes how even the design mindset must adjust to keep pace with accelerating technology.

There are still many digital properties to build: websites, mobile apps, VR experiences. But building next-generation digital experiences will be more about physical and digital convergence than standalone pieces or Digitally Enabled Physical Experiences (DEPE), surrounding, full room interactions that will require agencies to have different skills sets and the ability to think way beyond the screen.

We’re talking about new roles and new talent. “Experience architects” to engineer the user experience. Behavioral signatures, such as speech and motion patterns, replacing cookies for online interactions. The move from writing programs to planting the seeds for cognitive computing -- programs that think on their own, not merely progress through linear orders. So if we’re going to need this kind of talent to ensure the future success of our businesses, we also need to adopt a similar design-based approach to talent acquisition and management.

Designing the Modern Workforce with Design Thinking

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