What a Six-Year-Old Can Teach Us About Human-Centered Design
Nicole Dessain ????????
Human Resources Executive | Talent Management | Employee Experience | Learning & Leadership Development | Talent Acquisition | Adjunct Faculty @ Northwestern University | ex-Accenture
Last week, I got to spend quality time with my six-year-old twin nephews in Berlin. I am constantly amazed by the way the brain processes information at that age. Analogies of a sponge are an understatement!
As I was reflecting on the many lessons to be learned from the interactions with my nephews, I was particularly struck by how instructive they can be in a human-centered HR design context.
Hear me out…
“Why…?” Questions
My husband often remarks on the fact that I seem to have retained a six-year-old's habit of constantly asking “why…?”. Maybe that’s also why I love it when my nephews bombard me with these types of inquiries when we are together… Here is a sampling of what was in store for me last week:
What I find interesting is that as adults, we tend to take the answers for granted, often not questioning what we have been taught. It’s a great reminder to examine our own values and biases.
Also, in design thinking there is an actual method that instructs us to ask “why…?” five times to get to the root cause of a problem. But what I find even more intriguing is how we as adults might tap into the six-year-old inside of us on a more continuous basis to (re-)cultivate our natural curiosity. Curiosity after all holds the key to personal growth, innovation, and adaptability.
Your Turn: How do you tap into the curiosity of your inner six-year-old?
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Simplification
Now, with six-year-olds, answers to an initial “why..?” question might inevitably lead to further inquiries. Check out this conversation with one of my nephews:
NEPHEW: “Why is this man who is sitting on the sidewalk asking for money?”
ME: “Because he is homeless and is asking for help.”
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NEPHEW: “Why didn’t we give him money?”
ME: “He might use it to buy drugs so it’s better to donate to a charitable organization that helps the homeless.”
NEPHEW: “What are drugs?”
ME: “…” [Saved by the bell aka the approaching train while adult bystanders couldn’t hold back their smiles as I was fumbling through finding an explanation suited for a six-year-old]
Obviously, there are many reflections each of us might have after reading through this exchange. But for the sake of this article, let’s stick to the ones that might apply to human-centricity in HR.
Crafting a child friendly answer requires us to customize and simplify.
This analogy applies to our HR programs and services.
When I work with HR teams and I don’t understand the purpose of a certain process or program, I might literally ask: “Please explain this to me like I am a six-year-old”. If the answer is too complicated for even me - someone in HR - I assume an employee or a leader will also be confused. It's a great litmus test to assess where we might need to simplify our programs and messages.
I am curious: How do you find out if your HR programs/processes/services are easy to understand and use?
While we are on the topic of asking insightful questions: I recently recorded a Talent Tales interview with Jessica Haaz, an attorney who has embarked on a personal project called “100 Interesting Conversations”. In the episode, Jessica discusses how we can craft better questions – in general as we interact with others, and as it applies to the discovery step in the design thinking process. Check it out here.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Design Thinking for HR is a biweekly LinkedIn newsletter that aims to inspire HR professionals to experiment with the human-centered design framework. The newsletter is curated by?Nicole Dessain who is a talent management and employee experience leader, founder of the HR.Hackathon Alliance, and a Northwestern University instructor. Nicole is currently writing her first book about Design Thinking for HR. Join the Early Readers’ Community here.
Working with staff and volunteers to improve their experiences in the National Trust.
1 年Thinking about a couple of projects my team is leading on I am really seeing the power of asking that "Why?" question multiple times. It's really easy to fall into the bad habit of accepting the first answer you get. If you keep asking the question and therefore encourage the person you're asking to dig deeper you really do get a better informed view of what's going on (or not going on) and what's contributing to that. It often unearths info that points you in the direction of other people you then need to involve in the work as well which is an added bonus. Qudos to David Hedges for really role modelling this in the team.
Leadership Development | Creator of the 7-HTL Framework | Empowerment, Growth & Performance | Disc Golf for Team & Leadership Coaching
1 年Curiosity ?????? I love to ask "... in what?' For instance, when we hear 'employees should be engaged,' I begin by asking "engaged in what?" A lot of times I find employees and leaders have difficulty clearly answering such a question - no wonder we see all the reports and content about low engagement and diminished employee wellness. There is too much ambiguity to have a healthy workplace culture.
Bringing the 'Human' factor back into HR and providing a solution that's right for you.
1 年Love this article, thank you for sharing and love the 'please explain this to me as if I was a 6 year old'. We so over complicate everything and simplicity is the key. I'm going to make a conscious effort to keep things clear and simple and bring my inner 6 year old out more often!