Managing tomorrow's organizations, by Design.

#Berlin is a vibrant hub for #coworking, #designthinking, and other post-rational creative practices. It attracts artists, digital natives, misfits, and even traditional business managers.

It’s where I was captivated by the opportunity to help build Europe’s largest and coolest coworking space, betahaus I Berlin , which recently turned 15!

Did I fully understand the product back then? Not really. Did we have fun? Absolutely. Were all co-founders and the early supporters inspiring and pioneering new ways of thinking and doing? Yes!

They were so inspiring that, by chance, we discovered a revenue stream by giving corporate tours of our improvised office space in an old factory in Kreuzberg, Berlin.

The corporates and bureaucrats payed for breathing creative air.

In 2015 enrolled to a journey of curiosity to understand the fascination of corporate and public managers for these creative practices. I traveled to the studios of pioneering European Design Thinking Consultants who shared anecdotes about the transformative potential of DT. Back then most of them gathered around DesignThinkers Group .

In the Ivory Tower of Wisdom at the Bauhaus University and at Academic Conferences in Nancy (France), Copenhagen (Denmark), San Francisco (USA) I discovered Design Theories who confirmed this potential.

While design-led organizations are rooted in collaboration and creativity,?rational organizations are built like factories pursuing efficiency and predictability- Meanwhile the simplification of DT was promising quick wins and 'universal charlatans' flooded the creativity and innovation market.

So, I created a rigorous vocabulary to articulate DT at its full potential trough the social practice theory.

To validate this new theoretical lens I did extensive action research in three large companies. The lens revealed pitfalls of purchasing a simplified version of Design Thinking and helped articulate how DT can be used as an enabler for change.

Managing the unknown is scary!

My Social Practice Lens proposes a theoretical model for organizational development that helps make sense of future phenomena and provides practical tools for managing tomorrow’s organizations.

In the true spirit of knowledge transfer, I built a company around it called Change Darer Darer. Since 2015, we've trained and consulted with thousands of people in corporations, public sector organizations, and startups. They now dare to ignite and implement #CHANGE.

It turned out you can apply the Social Practice Lens to organizational development across departments. We were mostly commissioned by sales & marketing, HR, or R&D, and by the C-Suite and strategy projects. This Trojan horse ended up infusing creativity and innovation in all parts of the organization.

Today, I dare to bring all these experiences and skills into one single organization (to be disclosed soon) that bridges the gap between new agile ways of working and traditional bureaucratic realism.

Tomorrow's organizations need a Head of Human Intelligence, one who upskills talents and people with their most authentic superpower: creativity. While most investments focus on AI, I call on all business leaders to supercharge the power of Human Intelligence by Design.

So, how do you manage tomorrow's organizations by design?

Marketing Specialists: Design thinking is not just a workshop, not just a method, or just a tool.

Chief Executives: Value the process not only the outcome. It's where the mindset shift happens.

Chief Operations Officers: Get innovative ideas out of the corporate idea cemeteries and into the market.

Chief HR Officers: Invite strangers into your organization. These are people who have no clue about your industry but will ask bold questions.

PS: ... and review those roles and their descriptions periodically. #jobcrafting is cool. Check it out!

Check out this video of my KEYNOTE Speech at Future.Works for more stories around the Social Practice Lens!