Going for gold • 3
Inspired by an article in Harvard Business Review about the underlying quests for corporate transformation (Anand & Barsoux, 2017), I have identified seven arenas where the power of service design can transform organizations, teams, and people. In this blog post, I explore Service Design for Employee Engagement.
3. Service Design for Employee Engagement
Purpose: Crafting purpose-driven operating models, policies, services, workflows, tools, and rituals to help leaders, employees, and teams grow, perform, and thrive in the workplace.
Common themes: Purpose-driven organizations and brands to provide meaning, focus, and direction. Career/employee journeys. Talent and performance management. X-capability collaboration. Diversity, equity, and inclusion. Employee engagement and empowerment. Health, wellbeing, and safety. Learning & development. Hybrid work. Customer centricity and intelligence. Continuous learning and improvement. ESG and CSR. Systemic and systematic creativity and innovation. Organizational and employee adaptability and resilience. Emotional intelligence at work. Operating models, work structures, culture(s), and leadership for the future. Agile organizations, functions, and work structures (e.g., holacracies). DevOps, DesignOps, and InnovationOps.
Project archetypes:
Designing the purpose-driven, people-centric North Star. Crystallizing, dramatizing, and socializing a compelling purpose and vision that outlines how the organization will address pressing issues, tackle complex challenges, drive massive change, and ultimately make a positive impact on people, society, and the planet (see, e.g., Cone, 2022; Mau, 2004; Norman, 2023). The purpose statement provides a clear answer to the questions, ‘Why do you get out of bed every morning?,’ ‘Why does your organization exist?,’ and ‘Why should that matter to anyone else?’ (Sinek, 2009). The vision statement describes the desired future state by painting a vivid picture of what success looks like. The North Star should generate excitement, build alignment, guide decision-making, shape behavior, and ultimately drive innovation.
Examples: Tesla’s mission adopted in 2016 – ‘Accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy;’ Starbuck’s mission adopted in 2008 – ‘To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time;’ and CVS Health’s mission and vision in 2014 – ‘Helping people on their path to better health’ and ‘To help people live longer, healthier, happier lives.’
Power tip: To reinforce the North Star, consider incorporating elements such as BHAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals), corporate values/beliefs, and guiding principles. To track progress towards the North Star, add strategic milestones and a robust measurement system.
Designing for employee journeys and performance. Ensuring an engaging, cohesive, seamless, and supportive experience throughout the entire journey with an organization, from bonjour to au revoir. This includes crafting employee-centric services, tools, and rituals to elevate moments that matter in the employee/career journey, such as recruitment, onboarding, professional development, professional networking, performance management, career development/transition, life transition, benefits engagement, offboarding, and alumni engagement. (Whitter, 2019; Meister & Mulcahy, 2016; Morgan, 2017; and others)
Designing for team journeys and performance. Ensuring self-organizing teams are equipped and enabled to build collective intelligence, improve collaboration, and boost performance (especially in hybrid work environments). This involves crafting team-centric spaces, services, products, tools, workflows, and rituals to elevate moments that matter in the project lifecycle, from recruitment & onboarding to offboarding & transitioning.
Note: For more information, please see Bau (2023) or, for a taster, my blog post Let’s accomplish amazing things together.
Designing for effective DesignOps (or equivalent). Equipping multi-disciplinary innovation, design, and delivery teams with the systems, services, workflows, tools, and skills they need to unlock creativity, drive efficiencies, and produce high-quality deliverables at scale. This involves standardizing workflows, integrating fit-for-purpose tools, building effective design systems, promoting collaboration and co-creation, fostering a culture of continuous learning, and aligning design processes with broader organizational goals. (See, e.g., DesignOps Assembly, 2024; Merholz & Skinner, 2016.)
Fostering culture of customer excellence. Building and nurturing a customer-centric culture where human needs and preferences are at the heart of every conversation, decision, action, process, and strategy. This involves equipping both backstage and frontline teams with the data, tools, training, support, and empowerment needed for effective value facilitation and co-creation. Additionally, it encompasses designing policies, platforms, services, procedures, touchpoints, and incentives required for exceptional customer service, effective multi-channel support, robust service recovery, and continuous learning & adaptation. (Franz, 2022; Goodman, 2009; and others)
Note: To keep it simple, I am here assuming that all project types are relevant regardless of where the organization falls on the spectrum between the hierarchical, command-and-control model and the fluid, network-based holacracy. For building and nurturing a culture of sustainability, see my blog post Going for gold • 5.
Complementary methodologies & toolkits: Strategic thinking. Business agility. Operating models. Organizational culture(s). Employee experience. Design research. Design thinking. Service design. Behavioural design. Process/workflow design. DEI design. Workplace design. Workplace/employee wellbeing. Knowledge management. Etc.
Exploring the problem space: Understanding the broader context. Exploring organizational & HR strategies, operating models, cultures, and change needs. Defining employee mindsets / archetypes / personas. Defining moments that matter in end-to-end career journeys and employee experiences (from Bonjour to Au Revoir). Uncovering unmet, underserved, or overserved employee needs in these moments. Uncovering deep insights across multiple research methods and sources. Identifying opportunity spaces for improvement. Framing or reframing challenges/problems. Brainstorming initial ideas and hypotheses. Etc.
Exploring the solution space: Generating compelling ideas and crafting holistic concepts (ideally in a series of co-creation sessions with employees, leaders, and HR professionals). Setting strategic directions and creating strategic platforms. Continuously testing ideas, concepts, and strategies for desirability, feasibility, viability, etc. (through rapid prototyping, experimentation, and piloting). Continuously adapting, downselecting, and prioritising tentative solutions. Defining stakeholder and business impact. Crafting compelling stories and value cases for change. Identifying roadblocks, defining requirements, and mobilising resources for implementation and sustained success. Etc.
Project sponsors: CHRO, Chief Diversity Officer, SVP People & Culture, SVP Employee Experience, CXO, CEO, or equivalent
Desired outcomes: ↑ organizational agility, ↑ innovation capacity, ↑ x-capability collaboration, ↑ organizational/strategic alignment, ↓ organizational waste, ↑ employee engagement, ↑ employee/team health & wellness, ↑ employee satisfaction, ↑ employee loyalty, ↑ employee retention, ↑ customer satisfaction, ↑ NPS, ↑ customer loyalty, ↑ brand advocacy
Note: Desired outcomes could also cover effectiveness and efficiency indicators to measure performance in moments that matter (e.g., emotions evoked, goal fulfilment, effort levels).
Service Design for Operational Excellence will be covered in the next blog post.
References
Anand, N. & Barsoux, J-L. (2017, Nov–Dec). What everyone gets wrong about change management. Poor execution is only part of the problem. Harvard Business Review.
DesignOps Assembly. (2024). Learn about DesignOps.
Franz, A. (2022). Built to win: Designing a customer-centric culture that drives value for your business. Advantage Media Group.
Goodman, J.A. (2009). Strategic customer service: Managing the customer experience to increase positive word of mouth, build loyalty, and maximize profits. AMACOM.
Meister, J. & Mulcahy, K.J. (2016). The future workplace experience: 10 rules for mastering disruption in recruiting and engaging employees. McGraw Hill.
Merholz, P. & Skinner, K. (2016). Org design for design orgs: Building and managing in-house design teams. O’Reilly.
Morgan, J. (2017). The employee experience advantage: How to win the war for talent by giving employees the workspaces they want, the tools they need, and a culture they can celebrate. Wiley.
Whitter, B. (2019). Employee experience: Develop a happy, productive and supported workforce for exceptional individual and business performance. Kogan Page.
