Hack:
Design Thinking based Change Management

By Dave Whitman - Change Agent and Innovation Manager at General Motors

Co-Authored By Matt Frost, Heather Northey, John Kenney, Val Green, Didier Clement

July 17, 2013 at 1:50pm

bottom up change

change management

design thinking

root cause

#creativity

Summary

Use Design Thinking Methods and techniques applied to Change Management/Org. Dev. issues.

Transition Change Management related activities from problem solving to opportunity identifying related efforts. This focus moves activities father up the value stream in that you begin by identifying root cause and unexpressed need in the organization. By applying the obeservational aspects of Design Thinking research and analysis you spend more time at the beginning identfiying true need and opportunities. This allows you to address and correct systematic issues at their foundation rather then to provide solutions to the resulting sypmtoms of an issue.

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July 31, 2013 at 8:07am

Val Green

Hi, found you!
Can someone give me an example - sorry but I have to have something tangible to start from. Didier, great start, can you give me some context? How do you know your team is creating multiple solutions to a root cause problem rather than a symptom? I have a problem with poorly designed development plans. How would I proceed using this model as you see it?

Apologies, there's always one isn't there...?
Val

August 12, 2013 at 4:37am

Didier Clement

Val
That's fine. I think I understand where you are coming from. I'll try to outline my thinking here.

You never really know whether what you are designing is addressing a symptom or a root cause. Actually, in organisation issues, I think it is impossible to know that for sure or given your perspective something is either one or the other.
What Design Thinking is saying, in my views, is that we should not try to figure those too much and simply jump to creating something that seems to address the problem (prototyping) and form there, simply check that it works.
So you would need many prototypes and also in all honesty you never really solve the problem, you just create a system that is better than the old one.

Does it make sense?

August 12, 2013 at 7:18am

Val Green

Yes I think so, Didier, thanks for your explanation. It's a very exciting and fluid concept assuming the day job still gets done as this could become an industry in itself!

I'm really not sure it is the same thing Dave describes in the brief though. I think we still need to think a bit harder about how to tell and sell this concept to others as I am not sure we are there yet.

I wonder what those who so far have not commented think?

Val

July 24, 2013 at 2:46am

Didier Clement

Some ideas to start us up?
Hello, I am new on this team. just wanted to start up something using the management hack template.
Please comments, add, disagree... if there is a need to set up a google doc, I can do that.

TITLE: Design Thinking based Change Management

SUMMARY: Apply a design approach to change management to develop more innovative and sustainable solutions

PROBLEM: Traditional change management has a problem based approach that does not fit well with the complexity and systemic nature of organisational change.

SOLUTION: Spending more time in particular upfront to understand the solution, addressing the problem by doing and prototyping various potential solutions would get better results.

PRACTICAL IMPACT: There would be a swarm of small team addressing organisational change challenges constantly. They would be pull out of their normal job and work in cross functional team. Lots of interaction..

CHALLENGES: This should be done at all level in an organisation, not at corporate or managerial level. It would be messy and constantly incomplete. For those reasons, it may be difficult to accept for management or for external investors.

FIRST STEPS: Pick one challenge and one team, give them a space and time limit to come up with a variety of solutions. Add a facilitator.

November 29, 2016 at 4:09am

Afra Gloria Müller

Hi Didier,

I am currently "Culture, Organization and Management" in Amsterdam which is a ethnographic research based programme and I am actually thinking of writing about your topic more or less. Would be great to join you and get your insights.

Thank you!
Best,
Afra

July 29, 2013 at 4:49am

Dave Whitman

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for my delayed start ... job and RL have a tenedency to sometimes get in the way of our passions, no?

Thank you for the first run at this Didier.

How would all of you like to proceed on this? Set up a Google Doc and a place for us to collaborate? I'm game for whatever will be easiest for the group.

Look forward to collaborating with all of you over the coming weeks.

Cheers,

Dave