How a transition agency designs its own organization

From words to designs

1. Introduction

A transition agency’s team had grown substantially over a number of years. They had grown from 10 to 30 people in the last few years. Since they are self-managing, this was causing long meetings and less connection between colleagues on the team. They knew they needed to reorganize, but the question was how.

They had already come up with 2 solution directions themselves. However, the challenge was to become visible. At their request, I developed a custom design session for them. In which they made their ideas tangible and specific.

2. The Challenge

Why this issue was critical to their business.

Meanwhile, day-to-day projects continued as usual at the transition office. But the upcoming internal organizational change, weighed heavily on everyone. It was critical to have clarity for everyone’s peace of mind.

What have they already done to resolve this?

The transition office had been self-managing for several years. Each team member has the mandate to make decisions in the organization. The team had set aside a year to design the new organizational structure. After two quarterly meetings, they had formulated two solution directions. The question was how to proceed. There were still a lot of questions and uncertainty. Wasn’t it better to do another meeting?

The internal project team suggested to try a different approach. What if we started designing in the third session?

The organization didn’t dare. They still suggested scheduling a meeting session instead of a design session. Because the team said:

‘We don’t really know what it should look like yet, so we can’t design it yet.’

3. The solution

The project team began to have doubts and asked for my advice. Here’s what I answered:

Dear Project Team,

I’m not going to give you advice, because then it becomes a “we of Jingeling, advise Jingeling…” and I’d like to avoid that.

The following questions come to mind:

• What if the 3rd session becomes another meeting/talking session, will you make more progress than after session 2?
• What if it’s OK to not be sure yet, and we’re trying to create something now?
• What if we could make both solution directions visual, physical and tangible?
• What if this design session is a way of exploring what a possible solution could be like? That we treat this session as design-oriented research?

Finally, I want to show you these two pictures:

The first picture below shows what often happens in practice.

You have an idea, you build it, then you launch it and only then do you learn if it works (or not)

With design-oriented research, you want to learn as quickly as possible whether an idea works or not. See the second picture below.

So you’re not going to build something (costs a lot of money and a lot of time) and then launch it (risky, because you don’t know if something works)

Then what do we do? We start from the idea, and then we see how we can bring it to life. And then preferably as accessible, inexpensive and fast as possible. So that we can learn as quickly as possible whether it works or not. In this case, I would like to be able to see and feel the two solutions. And we can do that through lego and playdoughetc. Is it real? No. Can I see what you mean by a proposed solution direction? Yes.

This allows you to ask specific questions, e.g. pros and cons of each design instead of hypothetical discussions. This allows you to make a more informed decision for the next step. Which could be a modification on the first design, back to the drawing board, etc…

You can reach me today until 3 p.m. should you want to call.

Should you still want someone else for the session, that’s totally fine. The important thing is that you feel comfortable with the choice.

Warm regards,
Jing

The project team also wanted to see the solution directions worked out in more detail. So that they could provide sound advice to their organization. And so they chose to move ahead with the design session.

4. The design session

I designed a custom design session for this organization. When designing, I always start with the end result. What is the desired outcome of the session? What will they go home with? That is the starting point of my design for me.

With this problem, it was very important that the solutions directions became tangible. So I had also brought materials to help shape ideas. Materials such as LEGO, play-dough, markers and paper.

During the design session, we started at the two solution approaches they already had. While doing so, I invited them to work alternately, alone, in pairs and small groups. I guided them step by step through the design process. To finally arrive at the presentation of the tangible designs they had created.

How a transition agency designed its own organization

5. The Results

Within 2 months of the session, the team opened a new office. And redesigned the organization. The project leader said:

‘The design session was the tipping point. We had done a lot of work before we went into the design session. The design session allowed us to better imagine ‘what it would be like if…’. This doesn’t work if you only talk about it. Then it stays in the ‘air’. ‘We still use the metaphors we found during the design session.’

6. Key Takeaways

This team had given itself over a year to come up with a new organizational design. The expertise and commitment of the entire team was very high. However, they did not get anywhere with just meetings. Yet the team tended to stick with the work form what they know. More talk, more meetings, more words.

Thanks to the courage of the project team, they still organized a design session. In doing so, the team made their ideas tangible and visual in a short period of time. With lego, playdough, markers and paper, they explored solutions and made them concrete.

A team member came up to me afterwards:

‘I was really dreading this session. We have been working on this for months. But the heavy burden fell off my shoulders as soon as I stepped into this room. Your invitation to just try to make it was very welcome.‘

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