The Design Thinking Playbook

by Michael Lewrick

  Meaningful results Meaningful results emerge through the use of suitable methods and adapted process steps. It can be helpful here to lead the team or group back to the original question. Self-awareness of the group can also be very conducive to reflection on one’s own experiments and solutions.

  Breadth of knowledge Facilitators can take advantage of a great fountain of knowledge in terms of facilitative methods; they know solution processes and decision-making processes; and they are experts in differentiating between process, task, and content. They work out new processes, methods, and models to meet needs even better and practice continuous reflection and constant learning.

  Positive attitude Facilitation refers to a positive attitude that is exemplified by the facilitator’s own behavior, such as a high level of congruence between actions and personal values, as well as the ability to reflect on the needs of the group. The facilitator notices at the right point in time whether he has been bypassing the needs of the group or not.

   HOW MIGHT WE...

  prepare a workshop optimally as a facilitator?

  What must be made clear before starting a workshop?

  Before we select a specific workshop or a specific intervention or method of facilitation, we ought to find out exactly what is to be achieved, how it is to be achieved, and why it is to be achieved. The more clear-cut the specifications, the more successful the implementation.

  Prior to a moderation in front of large groups, we should collect information on why such a large group of people is necessary. The purpose must be attractive and meaningful for all parties involved. It should not be formulated and structured within limits that are too narrow and must contain potential for exploring and discovery. If everything remains the same afterward, the facilitation has failed in its purpose.

  The following keywords help to clarify the purpose of an intervention. Is it about

  developing awareness?

  finding problem solutions?

  fostering the development of relationships?

  initiating the exchange of knowledge?

  supporting innovation?

  developing a vision and sharing it?

  clarifying the development of capabilities?

  building up the development of leadership?

  solving conflicts?

  drawing up and enacting strategies or actions?

  expediting decision making?

  In general, the following success criteria must be borne in mind:

  There is a high degree of mutual exchange.

  The establishment and the deepening of relationships is elementary.

  Everybody sees themselves as learners and contributors.

  Everybody is involved (in the discussion, in drawing, listening, talking).

  Everybody will be heard.

  Different perspectives are perceived as such.

  Shared findings will be condensed.

  Everybody is clear about what comes after the workshop.

  How can we proceed in the workshop, and what questions must be answered?

  The questions of How, What, When, Why, and Whom are focused on:

  What is the change about?

  On which playing field will we play?

  What changes are possible, and how should the goals look?

  What does success mean?

  How will the company look after the process?

  What is today?

  What does the reality look like?

  What strengths can be identified? What weaknesses?

  What are the benefits to be developed from the process?

  What needs are to be addressed?

  Who benefits from the results? What are the risks of the project?

  What was good? What can we do differently next time?

  What will we do next? How do we want to proceed?

  What methods can we use as facilitators?

  There are countless approaches, methods, and associated variants that can be used. In the end, we have our own toolbox of methods, and must use them in a targeted way.

  One possibility is visual facilitating and graphic recording. As the name suggests, the issue is to visualize information and dialog in real time and directly on site. Visualization mainly serves the purpose of transforming complexity into a structured picture. We particularly recommend this method for large projects with a great need for change management and in a difficult dialog that focuses on documenting the decisive turning point.

  We all know the phenomenon of the most optimization potential being hidden in processes that we believe are running perfectly smooth. Still, we hesitate to change systems that seem to be working.

  A way of thinking and acting that can help us break from our habits is appreciative inquiry. We focus on examining the given facts; that is, all those things that work perfectly in a system.

  As participants in workshops, we have all taken part in world cafés, open spaces, or art of hosting events. What all these concepts have in common is the idea of seeking dialog in a circle (the circle way). The advantage of a circular arrangement: Participants collaborate more actively and are more inclined to take on a leading role with regard to a topic or argument. We recommend such a setting for all group work and, in particular, in change-intensive projects of organizational development.

  One method that allows us to proceed in a way more driven by impulse than linearly is dynamic facilitation. This approach consciously appreciates mental leaps on the part of the participants, which are noted down ad hoc in lists.

  Usually, documentation is done in four lists with the thematic blocks of:

  Questions and challenges

  Initial ideas and solutions

  Concerns and objections

  Information and points of view

  The challenge for us as facilitators is that we pick up information quickly in such a setting and are forced to give room to reflection constantly.

  Frequently, we have observed the effect that the best dialogs occur during coffee breaks or with an aperitif after a long and rather tedious workshop. The idea of open space technology as a format picks up on this idea and designs the workshop per se as a free space in which we find solutions in common. We recommend an open space approach for the final presentations of design thinking projects, for instance. The visitors can explore the ideas themselves, and their curiosity lets them approach the topics. For a structured sequence, it is advisable to organize a world café. The objective is to share knowledge among different groups of people. After the discussion round, the participants are moving from one table to the other, while the table host facilitates the conversation with the next group. The idea behind it is the same. Again, the issue is to speed up an informal and nonetheless intense discussion in the small circle.

  What do we have to pay attention to in the individual phases?

  We have all organized workshops at one point and assumed the role of moderator or facilitator. Basically, there are four simple steps in the planning and implementation that we would like to summarize again as follows:

  Determine the context

  Carry out the planning

  Implement according to demand

  Initiate reflection and learning

  In the end, the important thing is that we have achieved the right results and created a “Wow!” experience that either generates a momentum for changes or else has taught us something upon which we can build.

  The facilitator always concentrates on the group and tries to encourage, empower, and enable it. These are the three Es of the facilitator.

  KEY LEARNINGS

  Perform facilitation

  Create relationships and foster the participation of each and every member.

  Clarify the meaning and purpose prior to the workshop.

  Plan carefully the process, the selection of participants, the environment, and the necessary information.

  Pay heed to a good team makeup. Use the ARE IN formula.

  Use tools and methods such as visu
al facilitating or world café, adapted to the situation.

  Create space for diversity: for example, of cultures, points of view, genders, nationalities, hierarchy levels, and functions.

  Use creativity methods, such as brainstorming, and guide the participants through difficult phases in the process (e.g., the groan zone).

  Assume a positive attitude and ensure the well-being of the participants.

  Always keep the nine principles for facilitators in mind (e.g., that relevant information is shared and that the goals of the workshop are clear to one and all).

  2.6 How to prepare the organization for a new mindset

  By now, Peter has carried out many projects with design thinking, and innovative and customer-centric solutions have emerged. His environment, his direct supervisors, and colleagues also know that design thinking is an asset for the company. However, Peter notices more and more often that not all teams back the mindset of design thinking.

  In discussions with like-minded people, at conferences, or in forums, he realizes that design thinking can bring about relevant solutions; yet many organizations have a hard time disseminating the approach transversally. Resentment grows, and solutions are sought to change the mindset.

  At a recent meeting of the DTP community in Zurich, a colleague of Peter’s who was an enthusiastic cyclist came up with an apt metaphor:

  “Design thinking is like a fantastic racing bike and it effectively takes us where we haven’t been before! But the fact we own a racing bike does not mean we’ll be able to cross an Alpine pass. We must have the corresponding fitness for it!”

  Peter is convinced that his organization—like many other companies—does not have the necessary fitness to live design thinking all the way, with all its consequences.

  Upon closer inspection, Peter quickly realizes that his organization has too many departments that do not share the same mindset: Although they have a great racing bike, they have a beer belly and no fitness whatsoever.

  So what is the problem that prevents design thinking from spreading?

  The problem Peter shares with others who are responsible for innovation is the form of the organization in which they work. The company has a typical silo structure, which has become manifest over the years and allows management to deal with growing complexity and the requirement for more efficiency. It is made up of specialized teams that optimize their own fitness. The preferred tools are process improvement and operational excellence, which make the silos even more efficient. Transversal collaboration for creating a consistent customer experience falls by the wayside.

  To overcome such a silo mentality, we must undertake consciously designed measures and initiate change processes that make cross-­departmental collaboration possible. This is the only way to establish a new mindset in an organization as a whole. Design thinking is always only as effective as the capacity of the organization to implement the result comprehensively and evenly.

  How can the change be tackled, and why are companies so often held hostage to this problem?

  Many companies have a diversified organizational form in which the individual business units differ greatly and cultivate their own work processes and subcultures. Although this form of organization can help to guide a growing organization into manageable channels, the separation of the organizational elements can result in the fact that the overriding meaning of the company gets lost on the way. The business units and departments see the objectives for their work exclusively in relation to themselves. Objectives that are meaningful to all organizational units are not universally lived. If they do exist, usually they’re only the key financial figures of the company—such as profit and EBIT—which are set for everybody in the company as orientation and corporate objectives.

  The consequence is that an integrated and coordinated way of working across the entire organization is quite difficult. Moreover, human, nonfunctional relationships fall by the wayside due to the lack of motivating goals.

  How do we react to changes in value creation?

  The customer experience is becoming the primary product in many segments owing to the transition from industrial manufacturing toward servitization (alignment to goods and services).

  Economic success is determined not by the quality of the product but by the fulfillment of our needs across the entire customer experience chain. Customers want an experience—no matter what kind—that they can share with others and that enables them to fulfill their wishes. For this reason, customer centricity is (again) becoming one of the core issues of management in the experience economy. The mindset of design thinking can make a crucial contribution to the development of customer-centric solutions.

  What is it that successful businesses do differently?

  Successful businesses gear all their activities and all areas as well as their employees toward the customer. In addition, they integrate the customer and his needs deep in their strategy, such as by creating an enhanced awareness of strategic foresight. They put the focus on customer interaction and the design of worlds of experience.

  In many companies, this requires a radical change in the usual understanding of leadership, away from the leadership doctrine of an omnipotent management toward a leadership culture (and a mindset) that enables the organization to overcome this functionally acting structure. The change in the understanding of leadership is also seen as a necessary step toward an integrated organizational form in which employees develop a high degree of intrinsic motivation but, at the same time, direct their activities toward an overriding goal shared by the entire organization.

  The path to the integration phase, however, starts in the so-called pioneer phase, in which the organization is often built around a leading figure. Then the company grows and diversifies into different areas. In the process, different cultures and silos evolve. This phase is characterized by efficiency and effectiveness. Only then can an organism come into being that ensures that these systems are perfectly matched with one another. For this reason, organizations must be reorganized and rebuilt at regular intervals. In nature, an apple tree must be cut and pruned for it to yield a rich harvest again and again.

  A unifying and integrating meaning that can be enshrined using the mindset of design thinking helps to implement transformation. As a creative tool, design thinking can fulfill a methodological role in the transformation of the company by providing important tools. The human-centered approach helps to establish orientation toward the customer, which includes considering colleagues from other departments as customers as well. In our experience, effective design thinking can optimally unfold only in an integrated organization.

   HOW MIGHT WE...

  enshrine design thinking in the organization?

  For organizations that have not yet gathered experience in design thinking, it can help to examine its excellence (its fitness!) in detail before beginning. If we develop design thinking exclusively at the initiative of one single area, it won’t have any lasting effect. From our experience, it is promising to establish the basis for effective design thinking through a company-wide network of users and supporters. This way, design thinking can be disseminated transversally. The buy-in of the decision makers stays as an imperative, though. Management must invest in the development of the capabilities of the entire organization to create an integrated organization.

  What do we need in order to implement an integrated approach in a company?

  The ideal is that all employees see themselves as entrepreneurs and act accordingly. Because an integrated and customer-centric company is characterized by the fact that, alongside the company management, the organizational structure and the implementation processes are oriented toward the customers/ecosystem. All employees act on their own responsibility, and the work is meaningful to all involved.

  We recommend paying attention to the following elements:

  Company management

  The company management should place customer centricity as a crucial, strategic
theme in the organization and communicate it to all employees. Coupled with a clear vision, it thus empowers all employees to direct themselves fully toward the customer and the ecosystem. For the employees to be able to work independently and in a customer-centric way, management creates a basis of trust. From this basic attitude, a mindset can evolve that gears the strategy toward the attainment of the common goal: to be of service to the customer/ecosystem.

  The organizational structure and organizational culture

  The organization needs a correspondingly open structure and culture, which are characterized by collaboration. An atmosphere is created in which commitment and a focus on the customer/ecosystem can be lived and experienced. Such an organization facilitates networking and simultaneously a high level of autonomy for all involved. A culture emerges in which collaboration is radical and fast.

  Holistic implementation of the customer experience

  Customer centricity raises the awareness within the organization for a holistic implementation of the customer experience. To ensure the competitive edge and as a response to changing customer needs, it is pivotal that the whole organization act flexibly—that customer knowledge be quickly and iteratively integrated with improved customer experience chains, and that these experiences be shared with potential partners in the ecosystem.