Pictures of the Future (Siemens) link realistic current trends with distant future scenarios to align and direct business activities. For one, the future scenarios created can be used well to formulate or redefine the starting question in design thinking, and can give further momentum to the process of creative problem solving on the team.
Step 1: We extrapolate from the world of today
We start with the daily business of our company and look at the trends, from which we extrapolate how the near future of our company might look. Data and information from different sources, such as industry reports and interviews with experts, are analyzed. The fastest way to reach our goal is to fall back upon the known trends in an industry, like internal trend reports and market analyses, which are freely available on the Internet. For example, we take the general Gartner Technology Hype Cycle as a starting point. Our best course is first to compile a provisional list of trends; discuss them briefly on the team; and note the estimated importance, strength of impact, and the degree of maturity of the relevant industry.
Step 2: We apply strategic visioning
We detach ourselves completely from our own business focus and our own professional blindness and design various distant future scenarios with a true outside-in perspective, independent of our own company (in the example, four scenarios have turned out to be ideal). Because we are dealing with distant scenarios, elaborate studies are usually carried out with the inclusion of worldwide research. Luckily, Siemens has already done this work for many industries with their Pictures of the Future and has made the results available free of charge (among others, from the sectors of energy, digitization, industry, automation, mobility, health, finance, etc.). We choose a positive, constructive, and profitable scenario and ask ourselves: “How might our company make a maximum contribution to this scenario? What would we have to do and offer?” We stay in the future in our thoughts and do not allow the processes and structures of our company today to influence us.
Step 3: We “retropolate” from the world of tomorrow
We carry out a retropolation from the scenarios. The point here is to draw conclusions for the present from the “known” facts of the future scenario. We juxtapose the results from step 1 with those of step 2, combine them, and infer from that what it means, in very specific terms, for the alignment and direction of our company today. In which directions should we innovate and do research? What skills must be developed? What personnel should be hired? And how should processes be redesigned so we are prepared for coming challenges and opportunities?
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Digital storytelling
Well-thought-out digital storytelling is becoming more and more important. After all, we use different digital tools every day and consume a correspondingly high amount of digital words. Digital storytelling gives us the opportunity to represent our company perspectives in more detail and use emotions in order to get more attention.
Storytelling consists of two words: “story” and “telling”—content and performance. We know traditional storytelling with a narrator, who performs in front of his audience. Nonverbal reactions help the narrator to assess how well the listeners are following him, so he can react spontaneously. The digital world has none of these nonverbal reactions. We must use other tools to establish empathy with a digital potential audience.
There is a broad range of media we can use, from multimedia films to audio broadcasts all the way to webinars. To select the right content and media, it is important to develop a deep understanding of the target group. We recommend creating so-called buyer personas and getting information from potential customers:
Why buy from us?
How do customers find us?
What questions are we asked during the sales process?
What motivated the customers to search for a solution?
Because all of us are addressed on multiple levels, emotional and intellectual elements associated with our brand are equally important. It helps in this context to flesh out the storytelling with data and facts. We also have the option of encouraging our users to generate content.
Lego provides an intriguing example of a digital story:
Problem: Lend a new profile to an old children’s toy
Campaign: 90-minute “Lego film”
Agency: Warner Bros., Hollywood, CA
Solution: A good movie for young and old with the message that we are imaginative builders at any age.
Mindset
Digital storytelling:
1
Keep your story or message short!
2
Make sure the content of your story is linear and the narrative is clear.
3
Show, don’t tell!
Use images to give the story
more content!
KEY LEARNINGS
Tell stories
Don’t just focus on the form and material but turn the product into an experience. The goal is to stimulate the imagination of the consumers.
Speak to the various senses in order to create a holistic experience for the user.
Make use of factors of success such as focus, simplicity, interactivity, and branding for a good story.
Create future scenarios for an inspiring framework. They help to enshrine and communicate a vision.
Establish empathy with the user. Empathy is the basis for every story because consumers want to satisfy their needs. Arouse fantasies and desires.
Try to tell a vivid and exciting story by pepping it up with other people surrounding the user.
Get inspiration from tools such as the Minsky suitcase. It helps in getting new insights and thus creating stories.
Thousands of digital words are consumed every day. Turn digital stories into a pivotal medium in order to heighten user attention.
2.5 How to trigger change as a facilitator
We all assume the role of facilitator sometimes. For example, in this function, Jonny has invited Lilly to a design thinking workshop for developing a creative space. Marc has found a suitable team for the start-up at d.school this way. Thus the work of a facilitator is very au courant at many companies and entrepreneurship programs. The trend can also be seen from the fact that Peter is currently getting a truckload of offers for further training in this context. The offers range from courses on Theory U to the art of hosting camps. With respect to the latter, the facilitator is also referred to as the host, who ensures that all those involved feel good and safe in terms of the change.
These new concepts sound rather esoteric to Peter’s ears but he once thought the same of design thinking, and now he champions this mindset with total conviction.
Is there is a typical facilitator attitude that is vital and important for change and transformation?
Peter is aware that, as a co-creation manager and in his role of facilitator, he triggers the “ignition” of new ideas. He makes it possible through dialog, clarity, involvement in the problem statement, and promotion of active participation. He supports the team in channeling a wide variety of opinions, which, in the end, leads to outstanding solutions.
Facilitation results in more sustainable decisions, which are backed by many. This means the highest added value a facilitator gives consists of creating the necessary structure and culture of dialog, so the team can focus on finding the best decision for their problem statement.
Discussions and exchange of ideas can be subdivided into two categories. In the first, there are those in which a decision takes center stage. Discussions that focus on the exchange of ideas and information are different and fall under the second category.
The implementation of changes succeeds when the employees are involved in it in a coherent and consistent way. The key to a company’s success does not only rest in new products and services, but also in how organizations integrate the intellectual capital of their stakeholders in change processes.
This is why a facilitative attitude and
the corresponding methods and approaches are seen today as a critical factor for the success of organizations and companies.
Each of us has different ideas of how a decision-making process would look in an ideal world. Some of us have the notion that decisions should be made through a logical chain of ideas, opinions, and analyses. According to this idea, all of us in a group think at the same speed, move forward linearly, and begin with a question at the same time in order to get to a solution at the same time.
Another mental attitude follows the principle of hope. This principle consists of the idea that group members have different opinions, which nevertheless can be brought to a common denominator. A solution is found without much divergence and with little effort.
In many situations, we are confronted with huge problems for which there are no easy solutions. These issues are complex. They require a great deal of endurance, and their solutions are based on a multitude of ideas and opinions. Peter has often gone through this situation when presenting decision memos to top management for the solution of a wicked problem, such as reducing the traffic in large cities through extensive digitization solutions or new technologies. Often the response is a killer phrase, like “That will never work!” or “The market is too small with too many stakeholders.” This happens whenever decision makers are incapable of mentally penetrating the solution or are unwilling to do so, or if they are driven by a fear that the changes might go deeper than desired. Complex interrelationships are strenuous and often difficult to understand!
In management meetings, Peter time and again observes that, although an issue is discussed, the decision is postponed indefinitely in light of a rather difficult basic emotional mood. Or a decision is made that wasn’t even discussed. Often, the boss makes a decision even before the multitude of different ideas from the divergent phase has even been thought through.
What’s so problematic about this is that all the divergent energies and ideas slow the entire process down. The divergent ideas that have not been discussed get dug out again in every project phase and brought into the process.
With such decisions, the team is often still busy generating ideas—the supposed solution was actually quite far away. In Chapter 1.2, “Why is process awareness key?” we already talked about the groan zone. Once again we must emphasize that it isn’t easy for teams and groups to accept and engage with new and contradictory ideas. You want to get a project moving, but you notice that the team’s energies go in all directions and are not to the point.
At the moment of ideation, usually group members do not have any clue where they are headed. Especially with complex questions, this situation is perceived as unpleasant, difficult, and simply awful. Groups often experience this situation as dysfunctional. But it isn’t that way at all. Every group and every team go through this period of emergence. The facilitator helps everyone endure any irritation, confusion, and disruptions.
HOW MIGHT WE...
support the facilitation process?
The nine principles of facilitation
Facilitators use different methods and approaches, which are based on nine principles. These rules are seen as the golden thread for the facilitator:
Assumptions and conclusions We continually make assumptions, use attributes, draw conclusions, or are subject to well-known prejudices. That is not the problem. What makes things difficult is we’re not aware of it or believe our assumptions are the truth. In effective groups, these assumptions are reviewed and tested again and again.
Sharing of relevant information This concerns not only data and information directly related to the question, but also all information that could influence a process.
Use of specific examples In many projects, information and data crop up in a nonspecific manner, excluding information such as background, author of the information, location of the action, and much more.
Explanation of the intention and the conclusions Our intentions indicate the purpose we pursue. When we explain intent and conclusions, we share our insights with the group on how we got to a certain piece of information and how we drew our conclusions. This way, groups become more open to different perspectives.
Focus on interests, not on positions Interests have something to do with our needs and desires. Thus we refer to the relationship we have with a given situation, while positions must be seen as adamant opinions about a situation. Effective groups convey their interests in order to develop common interests.
Combination of advocacy and inclusion In groups, contributions to the discussion often turn into a series of monologues, instead of ending in a true exchange. To advocate something while creating a reference to the other contributions allows for effective and common learning and understanding the issue on the next higher level.
Finding a design for the next steps and testing the differences Groups decide by themselves which core themes should be discussed, when and how this will be done, and in which way different perspectives can be put next to one another without hindering the cognitive process.
Discussion of topics that can’t be discussed Groups always have core themes that bedevil them and that they are apparently unable to discuss because they fear losing effectiveness. Groups can be empowered to confront even topics that seem completely impossible.
Support of decision-making processes on the basis of an adequate commitment level We know different routes and types of decision-making processes (e.g., delegation, consensus, democracy, consultation, advisory process). The degree of acceptance ranges from resistance to noncompliance to compliance all the way to internal commitment.
Facilitation can be useful for all types of transformation and change and all questions entailed in them in companies and organizations—from the development of a corporate culture all the way to strategy definition.
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Adequate system for dialog
How do we put together the team to promote dialog?
The process always takes center stage for the facilitator. In terms of content, the facilitator stays neutral. Facilitation always assumes that expertise, knowledge, and in-depth insights are available in the company itself. A facilitator creates the space for us to be able to exchange ideas in an adequate system. This exchange has the goal of enabling consistent, precise, effective, and successful collaboration.
According to the ARE IN formula, an adequate system consists of participants representing the following:
A uthority—who has the power to initiate change?
R esources—who contributes specific necessary resources?
E xpertise—who has experience and a very extensive range of knowledge?
I nformation—who provides us with information, including the informal kind?
N eed—who knows the needs of our customers and users?
The facilitator’s task is to make better use of the resources and potentials existing on a team or in a company. Hence he will direct developments based on strengths and not based on the prevention of weaknesses. The principle of facilitation is thus resource-oriented, not deficit-oriented. Facilitation is the opposite of almost all well-known consultancy approaches, all of which are more or less based on deficit orientation. Practically every consultancy is for compensating for deficits in the company, not for tapping resources that are already available.
In addition, facilitation is based on some very specific assumptions about the company and about the nature of changes:
Trust the process.
The knowledge of change rests in the system.
Have a low profile as a facilitator and don’t push yourself to the front.
Build up a community before decisions are made.
Control what you can control, otherwise let it be.
If a method or intervention does not help the group, forget it.
What we focus our attention on will become reality.
People want to take responsibility and do something meaningful.
Everybody is doing his o
r her best.
Based on these assumptions, facilitators develop specific approaches to initiate participation processes and to support teams.
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Skills of the facilitator
What skills must a good facilitator have?
Facilitation is based on six fundamental skills:
Create relationships This involves the building up of constructive collaboration: the development of a consensus on the purpose, goals, roles, and responsibility—in other words, making clear what values are important for the collaboration.
Suitable processes and methods The planning of suitable group processes and the selection of the right methods allows for open participation. It is of fundamental importance here to understand how those concerned can be integrated in the process in order to support different styles of learning and thinking.
Participation-oriented environment In varied participatory processes, the exchange and the collaboration between all those involved is promoted. This includes the use of effective communicative skills as well as the feedback regarding commitment and behavior. Diversity is rewarded, and conflicts are monitored actively.
The Design Thinking Playbook Page 17
