Transformations: 7 roles to drive change by design - Tapa blanda

How do we use design to drive change?
Seven change roles

In order to help structure the how of organisational transformation, we’ve
identified seven crucial roles that design, designers and design-thinkers play in the process. Those roles came into being as a result of the synthesis of the case studies, expert interviews as well as our own extensive experience. We’ve subsequently used the roles to inform the flow of this book. These change roles are not mutually exclusive and can be activated simultaneously at various points of an organisation’s transformation journey, depending on the context. Roles change and can be discarded when no longer needed. Our aim is to provide executives and consultants, who are about to or who have already embarked on a change process, with a framework that can assist them with decoding and enacting change efforts where design is a significant component. We explore the roles in more detail in the next chapter, but here is a brief description of them:

Cultural Catalyst – Design in this role kick-starts a more creative and
explorative culture by offering a ‘safe space’ to try out new ideas and
encourage a proactive and experimental attitude.

Framework Maker – Design offers an understandable, coherent and
human-centred process and structure to achieve product/service
innovation.

Humaniser – Humanising the work and tapping into the deep empathy
between the teams as well as with consumers/users.

Power Broker – Design engages people from different parts of the
organisation and, by using key user needs as a reference point, reconciles
silo-induced interpretations and tensions.

Friendly Challenger – Design takes on the role of a ‘critical friend’,
challenging how things are done in the organisation and in some cases in
professions and culture.

Technology Enabler – Uses a design approach to focus on user needs when
implementing a technologically-driven challenge.

Community Builder – Uses design to engage stakeholders and help
create a culture of participation and involvement that can survive through
changing contexts.

3 levels of organisational transformation by design
The Danish Design Ladder is a useful concept for assessing where any given
company, or indeed country, is with regards to its implementation of design.
We suggest that Transformation by Design Ladder can be used to identify and
guide organisational change efforts that are informed by design. It includes 3 levels:

Level 1 – Changing products and services
This level is about providing better, more human-centred products and services and improving their value to end users. Here, the transformation by design focuses on the intrinsic nature of what is being offered. Taking the case of Bumrungrad Hospital, which we will discuss at length later, the transformation was to improve patient journeys, which led to a better service for patients.

Level 2 – Changing the organisation
Level 2 transformation takes on the inner-workings of the organisation itself. In this instance, design acts as a lever through the interventions of senior designers and design thinkers, and alters some aspects of organisational structure, strategy, processes or culture. In the case of Spotify, the design function was rebalanced with the dominant tech and product aspects of the organisation to bring a more human focus to their product development.

Level 3 – Changing the nature of organisational transformation
Finally, Level 3 transformation tackles the real obstacles to organisational
change such as cultural biases, misaligned vocabulary and points of view,
vested vertical structures and many more. Design in this instance is helping
overcome and mitigate the natural systemic and social resistance to change
as well helping to equip employees with the right tools to carry out the
human-centred change. This can be seen in how the US Department of
Veterans Affairs helped staff overcome their long-held assumptions and
reconnect them with veterans’ current needs.