Insights from the Global Chief Executive Officer Study

Do you occasionally sit back and wonder why work is so complicated?  What happened to our worlds of work when we knew almost every day how to attack and beat back the infamous “to-do” list?  A good day ten years ago was when I finished all but a couple of the items on my list, and was charged up to refresh and hit it again the next day.  Those days are gone.  Work and life priorities are in constant change.  Reaction times require continuous immediacy.  Requirements simply present themselves as “complex”, sometimes bordering on the edge of chaotic.

If Uncertainty was the word for 2010, then Complexity is the word for 2011. Complexity is defined as: “the varied relationship of multiple elements that are relative and changing over time.”  The nature of the elements, the relationship of the connections, and the change nature of it all, compound over time resulting is a loss of predictability and order in the system.  The personal result is that today our daily lists of to-do’s are often blown up in hour one of the day, never to be returned to again.

In the spring of 2010, IBM released the fourth year of a study of what is on the minds of the world’s CEO’s.  The title of the 2010 report is Capitalizing on Complexity.  The introduction to the report states:

“In a world fraught with uncertainty, what are today’s CEOs doing to strengthen their situations against competitors?

Previously, CEOs have consistently identified change as their most pressing challenge. Today, CEOs are telling us that the complexity of operating in an increasingly volatile and uncertain world is their primary challenge. And, a surprising number of them told us that they feel ill-equipped to succeed in this drastically different world.” Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Change, Experience, Leadership, Learning, Strategy
Posted in Agility, Cool, People, Workplace

“Imagination is more important than knowledge” Albert Einstein.

Like Tim Brown from IDEO, we have found that it is more effective to initiate the act of design by taking design out of the hands of the designer and putting it in the hands of those most impacted by the design.  On a recent project we were faced with a challenge that changed my method of initiating, envisioning and conceptualizing a project in collaboration with those it impacted the most. 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAinLaT42xY

The challenge was put to us by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center when they asked us to create a new experience for the child patient, their family, and their caregivers in the design of a new satellite hospital. The essential ingredient in the process of putting design into the hands of those most impacted it was to find a way for children to be active participants in the design process.   

To do this, we created a process tool we call “Imagine.” In this case,  where we utilized narratives to lead children through a series of visioning sessions to uncover the qualities of their favorite places, the places that make them happy, feel good and most importantly not scared.  We then worked with the kids to do sketches or “ideagrams” to diagram or “draw what they saw” while listening to the narrative.  The process, taking no longer than 30 to 40 minutes opened a new way of working together that fully engaged the creativity of the children.  We then worked with the children, core project team and parents alike to apply those favorite qualities to the design of new space and the experiences they would have when receiving or giving care.  In his terrific book Inner Game of Work, Timothy Gallway puts it this way.

“It is more effective for a golfer to “see” the trajectory of his golf ball rising into an arc against the sky, then falling onto the green and rolling into the hole, than it is to say to himself, “I want to hole this shot.”  Likewise, if your goal is better teamwork with your colleagues, it contributes to mobility to envision what that might look and sound like.  When you use pictures, sounds, and words to project a desired future state, more parts of the brain are involved in the goal setting.  This increases the likelihood that more of your brain will be used in the process of fulfilling the goal.*”        

When we used this process with parents as well as kids we found it worked equally well if not better than what we were using to engage adults in collaborative design thinking.  We use this method today with a wide variety of groups, including business and community leaders complete with crayons and construction paper.  Though occasionally we find, especially serious executives, skeptical of the idea that you can do effective work with a crayon in your hand, this has tool has made the sometimes ethereal process of visioning immencely practical, leveraging the power of the imagination.

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Tags: Books, Experience, Imagination, Pictures
Posted in Cool, Design, Generations, People, Tools, Workplace

For the second year in a row, through the Retail Design Institute Sao Paulo Chapter, I was invited by the Brazilian Franchise Association’s to speak at their annual convention. George Homer, the Chapter President and gracious host, took me around to visit retailers and restaurants that catered to a higher level of design and clientele. I saw several concepts, but there was one furniture store that I thought put it all together.    

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Tags: customers, furniture
Posted in Architecture, Cool, Design, People, Retail, Services, Store Design, Sustainability, Trends

Lately, This iPhone issue with the antenna has me thinking more about technology and its impact on customer service. I have been evaluating my shopping and dining experiences where new technology has been introduced to enhance the transaction customers experience. Most times the technology is a blessing and I welcome it if it speeds up and adds to my impression of the brand. Unfortunately, not all technology upgrades represent the best interest of the customer or the desired loyalty building final transition experience. Here are three examples within the last year where the portable hand held credit card swipes that derailed expectations and shopping experience.            

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Tags: Apple, Experience, Trust
Posted in Cool, Design, People, Retail

Prior to the NCAA basketball tournament, I happened to catch the show Sport Science.  They were doing an episode titled “Does where you play effect how you play”  The show explored three factors that could have an impact on the results of a basketball game: sound, sight and space.  It struck me how well this tied to our firms belief in the impact architecture can have on the behaviors of people, just from a basketball perspective.  We generally look at the impact we have on people through the lense of workplace, higher education, science and retail design — why not basketball?  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Tags: Video
Posted in Architecture, Cool, Design, Innovative, People