The way Organisational Development (OD) is initiated and deployed for any organisation is changing, and much of this evolution is down to the growing influence of human-centred design.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that people need to be at the centre of organisational development, but up until recently the model has been more driven by those in senior management rather than the employees themselves.

Human-centred design is a ‘sister’ process to Design Thinking, an approach to innovation that draws on how a designer would consider integrating the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success (Tim Brown, CEO OF IDEO).

Design Thinking has become part and parcel of management discussion in recent years despite it being around as a concept for way longer.

Despite this it is still a relatively new concept in the world of organisational development, and is becoming a more accepted approach. It does what it says on the tin – human-centred design develops solutions from a people perspective, to identified issues.

Gap Analysis is being replaced

In the past when organisations would recognise an OD need, learning and development consultants would be engaged to understand the issues through the narrow lens of the business leaders and then deliver a solution to fit with the organisation’s pains and plans.

For years, consultants would follow a gap analysis approach involving the comparison of actual performance with what is the potential or desired, as informed by the views of senior management.

I’m sure you’ve heard it many times - “let’s hold a workshop so staff can engage with the issue and get on board with the solution.” In essence, the consultants ‘help’ the organisation make changes that are aligned with the assumed issues pin-pointed by the business leaders.

Unfortunately, change initiatives have a dismal track record – much of which is due to failing to engage staff in the process, from identifying a need to a programme’s implementation - you are probably aware of claim by Professor John Kotter, of the Harvard Business School, that nearly 70% of large-scale change programmes fail to meet their goals.

However, thankfully there are an increasing number of senior leaders who understand that top down is not as good as bottom up despite the challenges to overcome along the way.

Hurdles for human-centred design

As a regular commentator on human-centred design, one of the principle challenges is changing the way organisational development has been managed for years, which has become more of a box ticking process, determined by senior management, not employees.

There are also OD models such as 70:20:10 that have been adopted with the assumption that if you follow a process such as this your organisation and the people within it will develop – not so.

Another challenge is the amount of time needed to manage organisational change, as there is never a quick solution.

Like so many aspects of managing in a technology era, organisational development is being disrupted as it is now the employees who will decide how they will learn, not managers. And if they don’t find learning with your organisation they will either find it online without your involvement, or go to another organisation who understands their perspective. People are requiring learning and development leadership not management.

A designed approach to Organisational Development

Businesses are beginning to appreciate the value that can be delivered from a designed approach to organisational development because the outcome is always significantly more successful over the long-term.

The core components of design thinking are logical steps on the path to uncovering learning needs and skills gaps which lead to the right solution for stakeholders to buy into. It is still bridging the gap between current performance, and that which is possible in the future, but achieving this in a different way.

It helps create an opportunity to think of the way that things could be rather than having our hands tied by history or what’s normally accepted. It also helps us find new ways of engaging employees through the whole employee lifecycle and create a greater EVP (Employee Value Proposition).

Human-centred design thinking can be used in a huge variety of ways, including:

• Uncovering the learning ecosystem – everyone has a different way of learning and appreciating this helps create the right solution for each audience - we first need to understand the learner and learning ecosystem – this will help the development process address what was important, and why and how it should be engaged within an organisation?
• Delivering learning content – understanding how people learn leads to more effective ways to deliver content, with sessions being structured to allow participants to identify new ways to solve old problems.
• Change management – if you want different results but use the same tried and tested approach, you’re likely to be sorely disappointed – the agility and in-built empathy of Design Thinking means discovering other ways to engage audiences.
• Creating technology solutions – it can also lead to uncovering why and how different technologies might serve the individual and the business better and what it could achieve.
• Teaching learners to teach themselves – it engages employees in the learning journey builds confidence, engagement and self-esteem. This is empowering and in itself is a support for better performance and results.
• Supporting co-creation, prototyping and visualisation – it helps foster co-creation whereby both employers and employees identify needs and develop solutions, test ideas to decide the best course of action and visualise a solution, a key part of design thinking (Eneberg, M., Holm, L., 2015)

The importance of context for organisational development

Context is vital to understand when considering organisational development. Without it any solution sits in isolation and won’t be something for employees to easily connect with. Part of successfully bringing people on the journey comes down to ensuring that they understand what it means to them within their context.

Important steps to take on the Human Centred Design Thinking approach to learning and development include:

• Spend time with employees to understand the issues from their perspective.
• Do this in a way that creates ownership whereby employees identify the need for change themselves.
• Encourage them to contribute to the process so as to empower them to drive any change themselves.
• Seek agreement from employees about the issues, have greater insights into the core need for change and encourage them to bring their own ideas to the table.

 Human-centred design can also start to deliver sustainable change at a much earlier stage of the project.

Organisational development has been managed top down for decades but now with all the information in the world at people’s fingertips the learning process is no longer controlled by organisations, and it shouldn’t be.

A business doesn’t also need to be an academic institution and is far better placed to provide leadership for Organisational Development, not control.

If you’re keen to find out more about our approach to Human Centred Design in a rapidly changing world of work, contact Clare at clare@beyondperformance.co.nz or call 021 517 050

Or, join us for breakfast to debate: “70/20/10 is not a strategy for learning and development” on 15 September.

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References:

Eneberg, M., Holm, L. Design Thinking and Organisational Development – twin concepts enabling a reintroduction of democratic values in organisational change. Lund University, Sweden, 2015.

Suciu, C., Baughn, C. Design Thinking and Organisational Change: Developing a Human-Centered Culture. European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Reading: 787-793. Reading: Academic Conferences International Limited, Sep 2016.