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UXA2023 Erin Casali - Driving organizational change with co-design

UXA2023 Erin Casali - Driving organizational change with co-design

While we often focus on users and the products that deliver value to them, nothing would exist if it wasn't for the organizations that make these products.

If we look at organizations under a product lens, we have a system that grows and evolves in time, fulfilling its ultimate goal: delivering a product or service for its users.

But how does this system grow? This is often left to individuals to figure it out, a lot of frameworks focus on the "ideal state" and not on the change to get us there. By understanding that organizations are living systems and not static structures we can break the illusion of the "ideal team" and "ideal company" and focus instead on the pragmatic goal: managing meaningful change that creates more efficient organizations that benefit employees and, ultimately, users.

Because let's be clear: no organization ever fits any ideal model.

In this talk we are going to see how we can use our skills to approach meaningful and direct change in organizations, through processes, culture, and ultimately, the wellbeing of all the people that make things happen.

UXAustralia
PRO

August 24, 2023
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Transcript

  1. Driving org change
    with co-design
    Erin ‘Folletto’ Casali

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  2. Manifesto Ibridi F E L L O W
    DIRECTOR
    PRODUCT STARTUP CONSULTANCY
    SMARTER, SIMPLER, SOCIAL
    BOARD

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  3. View Slide

  4. Why


    design?

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  5. Designers have good skills

    for change management

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  6. Listening
    Good at empathizing, 

    listening and synthesizing

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  7. Facilitating
    Skilled in facilitating discussions

    that help aligning people

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  8. Modeling
    Used in translating complexity to 

    simpler models to communicate

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  9. Interfacing
    Pro
    fi
    cient in creating interface

    to in
    fl
    uence human behaviour
    * text heavy UIs are still UIs

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  10. We design the product.
    Design Product

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  11. Conway’s Law
    Organizations which design systems are
    constrained to produce designs which are
    copies of the communication structures of
    these organizations.

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  12. We design the organization to design the product.
    Design Org Product

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  13. Systems

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  14. System Thinking
    We consider the whole & its relationships 

    instead of splitting it up

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  15. Understanding the full system

    is not possible

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  16. Donella Meadows
    Remember, always,

    that everything you know,

    and everything everyone knows,

    is only a model

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  17. View Slide

  18. Aim for the
    best solution in
    your context
    Do not aim for the
    ideal universal
    solution

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  19. Ursula K. Le Guin
    What goes too long unchanged

    destroys itself

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  20. Change is inevitable

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  21. Change is necessary

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  22. Influence


    circles

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  23. Influence Circles
    How di
    ff
    erent parts of your environment and people are a
    ff
    ected by your actions
    Circle of concern
    Circle of in
    fl
    uence
    Circle of control

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  24. Manage
    But: keep an
    eye open for
    opportunities
    Things outside my reach
    Circle of concern

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  25. Hey, do you feel too
    our vision is too
    vague and unhelpful?
    EXAMPLE

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  26. In
    fl
    uence
    Change by
    aligning 

    others
    Things I can in
    fl
    uence
    Circle of in
    fl
    uence

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  27. Hey, do you think our
    roadmaps are
    effective right now?
    EXAMPLE

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  28. Own
    Change by
    driving an
    initiative
    Things I can control
    Circle of control

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  29. We should shift our
    team processes to
    become more async.
    EXAMPLE

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  30. Hierarchy


    circles

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  31. Hierarchy Circles
    Organization 

    circle
    Group 

    circles
    Team 

    circles
    A ‘circle’ is an abstraction of groups of people, information
    fl
    ows, and processes 

    in a hierarchical org structure but not strictly linked to a speci
    fi
    c structure

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  32. PROCESSES
    running the company,
    setting vision,
    direction,
    fi
    nancials
    PEOPLE
    executives,

    top mgmt
    AFFECTS
    everyone
    Organization circle

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  33. Group circles
    PROCESSES
    strategy and tactic,
    coordinating people,
    allocating people
    PEOPLE
    middle mgmt,
    principals
    AFFECTS
    a big part

    of the org

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  34. PROCESSES
    scoping and
    execution of work
    PEOPLE
    individual

    contributors
    AFFECTS
    a single

    team
    Team circles

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  35. Some changes happen
    within a single circle: they
    can a
    ff
    ect others, but
    others do not need to do
    anything to change.

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  36. Most changes however
    require working with or
    across multiple circles.

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  37. Change
    flows

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  38. Top down
    2 • Pilot
    1 • Consult
    3 • Rollout

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  39. Consult
    Make sure to plan
    with decision
    makers and the
    people involved 

    and a
    ff
    ected

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  40. Pilot
    Run the pilot
    program, the
    fi
    rst
    test to experiment if
    the change works
    and sticks

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  41. Rollout
    Once proven, roll
    out quicker the rest
    of the org. Make
    sure to still check
    with people

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  42. Mid expand
    3 • Promote
    2 • Pilot
    1 • Consult 4 • Rollout

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  43. It’s essential to
    highlight the
    success (measured)
    of the experiment to
    have it adopted
    more widely
    Promote

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  44. Bottom expand
    2 • Champion
    1 • Pilot

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  45. Involve other peer
    teams to embrace
    the change,
    fi
    nd
    new advocates to
    propagate the
    change further
    Champion

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  46. Bottom up
    2 · Champion
    1 • Pilot
    3 • Promote
    4 • Rollout

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  47. In
    fl
    uence
    1 • Ally
    2 • Promote

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  48. Sometimes to
    create change it’s
    necessary to
    fi
    nd
    peer allies that can
    make the proposal
    more loud and clear
    Ally

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  49. Ally
    Consult Pilot Rollout
    Promote Champion

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  50. Exper


    iments

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  51. Have an experimental

    approach to change
    Experiment to make sure things

    can be rolled back: it provides safety

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  52. What’s the hypothesis?

    How it will run?

    When is the review?
    Keep people committed

    Review as it progress

    Adjust where needed
    How effective was it?

    Any change needed?

    Do we keep it?
    Keep
    Revert
    Repeat
    Plan Run Review

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  53. Plan
    Clear hypothesis
    Be clear about the problem

    and the solution attempted

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  54. Plan
    Design “with” not “for”
    Co-design with the people

    a
    ff
    ected by the change

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  55. Plan
    Use artefacts
    Working together on a common

    draft accelerates progress

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  56. Checklist approach to
    change: write the guidance
    as sequence of actions.
    EXAMPLE

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  57. Run
    Kicko
    f
    Mark the starting point,

    communicate the solution clearly

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  58. Run
    Check-ins
    Review not just the changes,

    but also the people commitment

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  59. Run
    Adjust (a little)
    Tweak with small improvements,

    leave big ones at the end

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  60. Async, text standups
    in Slack.
    EXAMPLE

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  61. Review
    Retrospective
    Involve everyone in reviewing

    the success of the experiment

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  62. Review
    Keep
    A successful experiment

    makes the change stick
    IF SUCCESSFUL

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  63. Review
    Repeat
    Adjust the change as needed

    and try again running it
    IF NEEDS TWEAKING

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  64. Review
    Revert
    Make note of the learnings

    and move on to the next
    IF UNSUCCESSFUL

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  65. Time is your friend
    Let people think and
    process the change

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  66. Time is your foe
    Don’t push too hard

    don’t take too long

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  67. Process-org
    fi
    t
    The organizational equivalent of

    Product-market
    fi
    t

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  68. Do people want it?
    TEST

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  69. Is the change sticky?
    TEST

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  70. Agreeing doesn’t mean executing

    (sadly)
    Love the idea!

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  71. Push

    backs

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  72. A note on politics
    Politics are ‘just’ humans interacting

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  73. Most* company politics are 

    people thinking they are doing

    the right thing and missing something
    * yes, a[BLEEP]holes exist

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  74. Lack of 

    Clarity
    What’s the goal?

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  75. Lack of 

    Shared Intent
    Are we aligned?

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  76. Lack of 

    Organization
    What were you working on again?

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  77. Resistances

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  78. Inertia
    Energy and time required to change
    “I don’t have time”

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  79. Fear
    People worry and seeks stability
    “I worry”

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  80. Ignorance
    Lack of knowledge that things could be better
    “I don’t know”

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  81. Hubris
    Lack of self-awareness
    “I know better”

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  82. If pushback…

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  83. Learn
    Not just what 

    in the solution 

    didn’t work

    but also about 

    the people’s 

    reactions

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  84. Learn Wait
    Let enough

    time to pass

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  85. Learn Wait Catch
    The problem

    will resurface:

    catch the 

    opportunity

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  86. Learn Wait Catch Retry
    Try again

    using the earlier

    learnings to

    adjust the aim

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  87. Ursula K. Le Guin
    There are no right answers

    to wrong questions

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  88. Thanks.
    @[email protected]
    I NT E N S E MI N I MAL ISM.CO M

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