Why is it that too often we see smart people defending bad ideas? As consultants, it is our job not only to identify and explore opportunities for our clients' growth, but also to act as a change agent who can facilitate large-scale transformation. By seeing our client teams as a Trojan horse or messenger who can go back into their own organization and deliver the appropriate message, the client-consultant relationship becomes a cornerstone to the success of any project. It is common to see the views of a few leaders eventually trickle down and infiltrate an entire organization beneath them, which in many cases creates a homogeneous workforce that can lead to a breakdown in creativity and future innovation. How can we as design thinkers help to break this downward cycle of events effectively, efficiently, and politically,
within an organization that is not even ours? What gives us the right?
It is not our right - it is our duty! Acting as a change agent for transformation involves multiple levels of
strategic thinking that begins with the fundamental job of breaking down the group-think mentality pool that many of our clients find themselves swimming in, whether they know it or not. Much of the success in doing this is tied back to a few key activities that happen before a project kicks off.
Key Step #1
One way we set ourselves up for success when facilitating large-scale transformation is by initiating the assembly of a multi-disciplined team, not only for the consulting team, but also for the client team. Getting as many different points of view working on the same problem is a good place to start, but by no means the end. Getting those differing domains in place ready to infiltrate their respective departments within the client organization with new ideas from the project is crucial. The goal of doing this is to create a strategic messenger within each client team member. Think of it as the leader preparing a team to go out into battle. You need all areas of the battlefield covered in order to be successful. This is important not only for the success of the project at hand, but also for the sustainability of the project well after the project has been completed. Too many consulting companies today produce deliverables that end up serving undesirable functions such as nostalgic memorabilia or worse, a really expensive paperweight. Creating multi-dimensional teams that are armed to disseminate valuable information to their organizations is not only done for the good of the project content, but also to ensure the ongoing life of the project outcomes.
Key Step #2
At the onset of a project, it is important for the consulting team to set both explicit and implicit goals for creating change agents within their client team. This is a critical step in getting everybody onboard with not only the project content but also with the larger goal of helping to transform a potentially stagnant or out-dated mindset or point of view within the client organization. One example of an implicit goal that is indirectly related to the project might be to get your client promoted through the success of the outcomes of the project. The further up the food chain your client lives, with you holding the ladder, the more influence over the organization they will be able to have, and the more your client will see you as a viable partner for future initiatives.
Key Step #3
Part of this dedication and commitment on both sides means that the client team needs to be closely involved with key elements of the project. Getting your clients and stakeholders to participate in specific project events should be treated as a prerequisite for engagement. We all know that high level executives have little to no control over their own schedule, so this can be a challenging yet critical path to success. As the project lead, framing these activities in a way that makes the stakeholders feel as though their participation is going to greatly influence the success of the project is an important step to getting them in the room. Activities such as kickoff meetings, facilitated workshops, and even an abbreviated portion of the field research are all activities that require participation from these people. Client participation at this level
is not a luxury; it is a necessity.
Clients will inevitably have other projects and responsibilities. It is generally these other duties that will trump their participation and mind-share required to act as good strategic partners. Setting expectations early on project timelines is a great way to get high-level execs on the books. Knowing ahead of time that we might only have our clients' attention for just two weeks worth of time out of the entire length of the project allows us to plan ahead and strategically schedule activities that involve the right
people.
Key Step #4:
In general, clients are extremely smart, especially if they have recognized the need to seek our help. Our clients are often the best in the world at what they do and in need of help in areas that are not their strengths. Clients hold specific domain knowledge and expertise that is invaluable to the project at hand. It is unrealistic to expect to be able to learn everything that your clients know in the given timeframes of a project through conducting stakeholder interviews or a competitive audit. Using creative ways to extract and leverage this domain expertise from your clients, while at the same time strategically leveraging their role within their organization to ensure that they are set up to become a messenger for new, fresh, and smart ideas, should be another key implicit goal to any project engagement.
In conclusion, the more new and fresh ideas that we can enable our clients to bring to the table, the less risk
they run of falling victim to group think mentality and supporting an old, potentially bad idea from their organization. Much of what we do as design thinkers at Method has to do with being comfortable with change and learning to accept the role and responsibility that comes with being a change agent. Our duty as design thinkers extends beyond the ability to create new models for solving new problems. We must partner with clients to ensure that they do not get trapped by the old models that are blocking their way to a creating a valuable transformation.
