Complexity as opportunity – designing in hostile territory
Why not think of any organization you’re a part of as a unique medium in which you have the opportunity to create? – Gordon MacKenzie, Orbiting the Giant Hairball
Growing up as one of five kids on a farm, we discovered many creative ways to enjoy ourselves despite the rigid structure imposed by farm life (like milking the cows every day at 6:00 am and 5:00 pm). We trained geese as guard dogs to torment our cousins, raised crows as pets, had dirt lump battles over the corn, and built lakes, rivers, and dams in the mess made by spring mud. One experience we missed out on is hypnotizing chickens. In Orbiting the Giant Hairball, Gordon describes how you can hypnotize a chicken by laying it in the dirt with its beak along a line.
When we run up against bureaucracy or entrenched ways of doing things within an organization, like the mesmerized chicken we can remain plastered firmly against the corporate line or we can shake off the spell, take a risk, and learn the art of designing in what Roger Martin calls hostile territory.
Do you see complexity as a problem to be solved or an opportunity?
If you’re up for the challenge, Roger Martin suggests these 5 steps for designing in hostile territory in the design of business.
So next time you find yourself thinking there must be a better way, instead of railing at the bureaucracy try reframing your perspective to view it as a challenge, a source of opportunity, a medium in which to apply design thinking.
Tackle one project, one opportunity, one thread from the hairball.
Then use infiltration tactics to extend your reach.
Use infiltration tactics to sneak design thinking into your organization
The tactics outlined in this fun little book Selling Usability: User Experience Infiltration Tactics provide you with a subversive’s bottom up guide to sneaking user experience into an organization. Like Martin, Rhodes challenges us to apply our skills as designers to the challenge of integrating design into an organization. Replace user experience with design thinking in the tactics he outlines and you’re good to go:
- Constantly think about the value you can provide to the organization. Compare that value to the value of other activities, methods and tools. Have a broad view of the organization, who’s doing what, and what’s most critical.
- Sell. You’re in sales. Practice & prepare your elevator pitch. View everyone in the organization as a potential customer. Then deliver.
- Imagine you’re a consultant. Learn more about successful consulting and how to be an entrepreneur. Learn how to take calculated risks. Learn how consultants network and grow their business.
- Be an agent of change. Whether you attempt a frontal assault or you take a more subtle approach, the key is to take repeated, structured, deliberate action.
- Know your company as well as you know yourself. Understand the typical work patterns in your organization.
- Be confident. Selling design thinking and using these infiltration tactics requires a strong backbone, even in the face of rejection.
And remember, you’re not alone. In every organization there are others like you wanted to effect change. With collaboration and social media tools finding their way into organizations, it’s getting easier to connect. Create an internal tribe. Identify a project on which you can collaborate. Be creative. Use design thinking to deliver value.
Then share the stories of your successes to build awareness and gain support for future experiments in design thinking.
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