Canadian HR Reporter

STRATEGIC CAPABILITY NETWORK'S PANEL of thought leaders brings decades of experience from the senior ranks of Canada's business community. eir commentary puts HR management issues into context and looks at the practical implications of proposals and policies. CANADIAN HR REPORTER March 20, 2017 EXECUTIVE SERIES 11 www.scnetwork.ca Join our professional community of Canadian HR & Organizational Leaders: • Connecting @ monthly events • Collaborating with peers • Challenging conventional thinking The Power of Human Capital CULTIVATING LEADERSHIP FOR 35 YEARS Great Leaders GROW www.scnetwork.ca Shifting thinking ree SCNetwork members engage in a back-and-forth on Mark Leung's presentation Jan van der Hoop: is was a nice twist, I thought, on some of the principles discussed in the behavioural economics session in the fall. Essentially, it's a good reminder that in business, we tend to fi xate on data and process, at the risk of forgetting that, at the end of the day, it's all meant to interface with and support human beings whose behaviour is essentially always emotional and irrational. It struck me how closely Mark's design thinking methodology (empathy > reframe > ideate > prototype > test) mirrors the structure of a good coaching con- versation. It makes sense, I sup- pose, since both are designed to shift thinking to a desired future state, then build a bridge to get there — I'd just never made the connection. I thought the best gem came at the end, almost as a throwaway — in the early thinking about the design/redesign of a product or service, what emotion are you de- signing for? What a great shift and what a great place to start from. Ray Johnston: e session was a great reminder of the power of a few simple things to solve big problems: Start with an under- standing of the functional and emotional needs of the end user or customer; defi ne the problem; take an iterative approach to gen- erating and testing ideas; and keep refining thinking interactively until you come up with a solution that resonates. A few simple things that, un- fortunately, can easily get lost in the bump and grind of everyday life. When we applied this design thinking to our own issues during the session, it was surprising to see how, in the space of an hour, this simple, easy-to-use approach generated such a variety of very practical, potential solutions. Van der Hoop: I agree. It's sim- ple, but not always easy. Especially in an organizational context where the vortices of power, agenda and "unmentionables" are always swirling and people don't often feel safe to speak their mind. It un- derscores Mark's comments about the value of external, fresh-eyed, "Explain this to me like I'm a six- year-old" facilitation. is would be exceedingly hard to accomplish with an internal facilitator. Mark opened the session with commentary about the corporate lifecycle getting shorter — For- tune 500 companies are shorter- lived than ever — and he ascribed that to the rise of technology. at was his segue into the importance of design thinking in making the tech useful and accelerating user adoption — but then he dropped an enticing question that he never revisited: With the rise of tech and its ability to do a vast number of things better/faster/cheaper than any human, what is the most stra- tegic use of people? Tracey White: I agree with your observations. As organiza- tions are challenged to keep pace with consumer tastes and markets in constant motion, the agility and human-centric approach that design thinking off ers is tremen- dously valuable. In my change work, I concluded long ago that the tools and frameworks com- monly used to manage change are simply too slow, too rigid and too process-focused. Organizations need to innovate constantly. To achieve this, skills such as listening and collaborat- ing — which are undervalued but essential to design thinking — are hugely important. As Jan observes, like coaching, innova- tion depends on human ingenuity, constant learning and incremen- tal performance improvement. To me, the methodology makes all of this possible by removing the fear of failure. Each step taken is an opportunity to learn, to im- prove and try again. is is the essence of invention and key to innovation. Our current change models are about achieving con- sistent, replicable results based on past performance. I echo you, Ray. Design think- ing is easy to use, inclusive and practical. Its time has arrived. PANELLISTS: • Jan G. van der Hoop, president of Fit First Technologies in Toronto • Tracey White, owner and managing director at Strategy in Action in Toronto • Ray Johnston, president of RD Johnston Associates in Toronto Ray Johnston Jan van der Hoop Tracey White Design thinking goes outside the box In our VUCA world (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambigu- ity), it's refreshing to see design thinking has fi nally come into the mainstream for many companies such as Google, Samsung and Apple, to name the obvious. Design thinking was introduced in 1969 when Herbert Simon out- lined the fi rst seven-stage model. At a recent SCNetwork event, Mark Leung, director of Rotman DesignWorks, introduced a fi ve- stage model: empathize, defi ne, ideate, prototype and test. Leung's challenging case study question for the audience was "How might we redesign the workplace culture to improve employee eff ectiveness?" Having practised his process at the event, I have a diff erent chal- lenge question for HR: "How can the design-thinking process ac- celerate your HR team's ability to build compelling HR strategies and programs that will profoundly enhance your employees' experi- ence in your workplace?" I strongly encourage every HR leader to think about how they could apply and practise the fi ve- stage model. For example, if your HR team learned to use the fi rst stage — empathize — and started to more fully observe, engage and empathize with employees, how much more could they under- stand employees' needs, experi- ences, issues and motivations? Moreover, how could that im- prove your workplace conditions and culture? Now, envision what would hap- pen if your HR team actioned the second and third stages — defi ne and ideate. e goal could be "to determine conditions, functions, programs and any other factors that would enable your HR team to solve problems more resource- fully." e ultimate goal could be "to enable employees to resolve issues for themselves with the minimum of diffi culty." With the introduction of the ideation phase, the aim would be to gain as many ideas or solutions as possible for the above goal. Us- ing any "ideation technique" — where the most popular ones are still brainstorming, mind-mapping and storyboarding — your team would create alternative ways of viewing the defi ned problems. Without using design thinking, what do you think is the possibil- ity of your HR team falling into old habits and comfort zones and using a preceding solution? And what's the possibility they apply the same actions, stock informa- tion-based decisions and "HR in the box" solutions for predictable, similar or recurring issues? e fi nal two stages — proto- type and testing — involve ex- perimentation, investigation and identifi cation, sharing and testing. By involving other departments or teams, proposed solutions can be accepted, rejected, improved and reconsidered. How many times has your HR team rolled out strategies, pro- grams and practices based on quantitative and rationale analyt- ics, and fallen short of the objec- tive? Best solutions are not always instantly apparent with solely lin- ear and logical problem-solving models. What makes design thinking an essential tool and a choice model for HR? Fundamentally, the stages help you to conscientiously intro- duce, discover, share and apply human-centric techniques to solve problems in creative and in- novative ways. And the processes can be learned and practised by everybody, and applied equally to products, services, customers and employees. Because the model is fl exible and non-linear, it can operate as a perpetual loop where each stage can be conducted simultaneously. Each stage can be integrated or re- peated in any order by any team. Consider the greater impact an HR team could achieve by adopting design thinking as their customary practice for develop- ing meaningful HR strategies that support building a great workplace. Trish Maguire is a commentator for SCNetwork on leadership in ac- tion and founding principal of Syn- ergyx Solutions in Nobleton, Ont., focused on high-potential leadership development coaching. She has held senior leadership roles in HR and organizational development in edu- cation, manufacturing and entrepre- neurial fi rms. She can be reached at synergyx@sympatico.ca. Trish Maguire LeaDeRSHiP IN ACTiON

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