Anchor the changes - UX & change management (9/10)
Author
Gerjan Boer
Published
16 December 2015
Reading time
4 minutes
In previous posts in this series, I described a holistic approach to raise the design IQ of an organization. In this approach certain measures were identified to create more structure, such as design processes, design roles and departments. Furthermore, I outlined the creation of a learning organization, with feedback loops, customer panels, prototyping and providing design training and frameworks to employees. Now, let’s dive into the mechanisms of a motivated organization.
This is the ninth article in a series on UX design and change management.
The permanent implementation of design thinking in a corporate culture has all to do with continuously motivating people. In this context, HR instruments are indispensable. In my description of the previous step in Kotter’s model for change, I stated that a lot can be achieved when HR experts co-create a design culture in an organization.
““Companies have several important levers to pull: hiring (recruitment, selection process), socialization (training, storytelling, rituals/routines), and rewards (formal, informal).” From Forrester Research by (Paul Hagen).
‘Building a design culture’
In this post, I’ll follow up on Forrester’s previous quote and describe several HR instruments which contribute to a (new) design philosophy in an organization.
Recruitment: An important HR instrument to support building a new culture is recruiting new people with specific characteristics. An obvious example: Hiring members of a UX team on the basis of their expertise (interaction design, visual design, content strategy, or information architecture) and their ability to build bridges within the organization.
But customer experience is a topic for everybody. Therefore, a corporate culture benefits when HR looks for design IQ-raising competencies for every role, but without the ambition to morph every employee into a designer. Examples of these competencies are creativity versus analytical skills, thinking “out-of-the-box”, a customer-centered attitude, the ability to cooperate across disciplines, looking beyond the department, or having a shared feeling of belonging (versus high-strung, Type A personalities in the organization).
On-boarding: In their first weeks of work, new employees mostly go through a process of on-boarding. Besides some company practicalities, part of the process is an attractive presentation on the characteristics of the organization and what’s considered important and valuable. The (new) design philosophy and its successful achievements must have a prominent place in this presentation.
Corporate meetings and success stories: Regular corporate meetings are recurring opportunities to communicate the new design philosophy. In them, you can engagingly introduce the new organization, its activities and why it’s successful. And you can celebrate successes of the new philosophy and relate them to the core values of the company.
Personal development plans: Every large organization regularly holds performance reviews with employees and creates related personal development plans. These give an opportunity to schedule a basic training session on design thinking, to conduct customer-centered activities, to participate in multi-disciplinary or cross-department projects, or even to participate in a design competition (see below).
Targets and criteria for assessment
Individual employees and departments have their targets, the objectives for which they are held accountable in the end. Collective targets create more of a common feeling and attack the silo problem. See also step 5 “Empower others to act on the vision“.
As an example, in one organization the division of time-spending by Product Management and Sales was as follows.
- Sales (40%)
- Time-to-market (40%)
- Helpdesk phone support (20%)
You might think that’s fine. Product Management and Sales were also held accountable for the impact of their work on the help desk. Their products and sales messages resulted in as few calls for support as possible. In reality though, employees from these departments didn’t pay much attention to this target, because calls “only” counted for 20% of their time. They performed well, but only on the 80%. Their motivation to get usable and useful products into the market proved insufficient.
But with another division of targets they saw the development of usable and useful products, and taking sufficient time for it, more as their responsibility.
- Sales (40%)
- Time-to-market (20%)
- Helpdesk phone support (40%)
Shared targets and a substantial proportion of it increased the change of usable and useful service delivery.
Formal rewards: promotion In every process of change, there are front-runners, people in the middle of the pack and laggards. Promoting the front-runners is an effective instrument for multiple reasons. The promoted ones become role models for others, challenging and stimulating them to imitate their behavior. Being in a better position, they can influence the (new) activities in the organization even more.
Formal rewards: bonuses Relating bonuses to customer-oriented targets of behavior is a rather crude instrument, carrying with it the danger of only motivating employees extrinsically. It is not advised for building a culture with intrinsically-motivated employees.
However, bonuses seem to work in a reversed way, as a stimulus for departure. After going through the on-boarding process, the online store Zappos offers fresh employees a significant sum of money to leave. In this way they are saying: “We’re going for the customer and not for the money. How about you?” or “Is our corporate culture really yours?”
Informal rewards: the design competition To build a new culture, informal rewards are better instruments than bonuses. There are a lot of ideas floating around, like a Hall-of-Fame, a dinner voucher or an e-mail with the compliments of the Management Team.
In his book, Kotter describes an international design competition in which multi-disciplinary teams think up the best ideas for the organization. During a grand ceremony, the teams can win prizes of eternal fame and honor, as well as a rafting event outdoors. And besides that (significantly, of course): the winning idea will be implemented.
Concluding remarks
This story is incomplete, too general and untested. It needs to mature in further conjunction with HR experts. What I wanted to stress though, is that through the cooperation between designers and HR, valuable things can emerge which contribute to a customer-centered design culture within the organization.
Read the final post: UX design and change management (10/10)
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