R:\Bau\Blog >_
Going for gold • 7
Service Design for Equitable Experiences
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 the final category, Service Design for Equitable Experiences. This one acts as a connective thread weaving through and enhancing the other six arenas, ensuring that the tenets of diversity, equity, and inclusion are deeply embedded in all aspects of service design.
7. Service Design for Equitable Experiences
Purpose: To remove discriminatory, socioeconomic, cultural, linguistic, physical, or financial barriers that prevent underrepresented and historically excluded groups from fully accessing, engaging with, and benefiting from workflows, products, services, environments, and experiences (adapted from Linares, 2021). This includes fostering an inclusive environment where all voices feel welcome, heard, and respected; embracing contrasting workstyles and personalities; and leveraging multiple perspectives to identify and address blind spots in processes, outputs, and outcomes. These efforts will lead to long-lasting positive changes that benefit individuals, communities, organizations, and society at large.
Note: Compared to a product-centric and compliance-based approach to DEI, a genuine service design mindset pays careful attention to how multi-touchpoint services and experiences are envisioned, co-created, co-produced, co-delivered, and perceived over time. This ensures that DEI is not just an afterthought but woven into the fabric of internal (employee-facing) and external (customer-facing) services and experiences.
Common themes: Exclusion. Barrier-free experiences. Equity of access, experience, and impact. Fair treatment, inclusive representation, and equal opportunities for all. Conscious and unconscious biases. Blind spots. Intersectionality. Cultural sensitivity and relevance. Physical, sensory, and cognitive impairments. Long-term disabilities, temporary conditions, and situational limitations. Design for belonging. Inclusive/universal design principles and applications. Adaptive and customisable design. Participatory design. Value co-creation. Shared decision-making. User autonomy and empowerment. Equitable outcomes. Iterative design. Continuous learning and adaptation. DEI metrics and evaluation. DEI accountability and transparency.
Project archetypes:
Designing for participation (participatory design and decision-making). Equipping facilitators, designers, and users with the platforms, services, spaces, workflows, tools, and skills needed to collaboratively create innovative, inclusive, and effective solutions to complex, multi-faceted challenges. By treating customers, employees, and other collaborators as co-creators, this approach cultivates collective intelligence, fosters lateral thinking, encourages shared decision-making, and ensures shared ownership of both outputs and outcomes. Designing for participation includes selecting the most effective engagement format(s) for co-creation – such as world cafés, design sprints, innovation jams, hackathons, co-design workshops, and crowdsourcing – depending on project needs at any given time in the process. (Kaner et al., 2014; Lipmanowicz & McCandless, 2014; Gray, Brown & Macanufo, 2010; Knapp, Zeratsky & Kowitz, 2016; Brown & Isaacs, 2005)
Designing for cultural competency. Ensuring that customer and employee experiences are welcoming, relevant, and respectful for all, regardless of cultural background – including ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, education, generation, and other cultural factors. This involves not only appreciating and embracing cultural subtleties and differences but also tailoring workflows, services, and experiences to meet the specific needs and preferences of diverse cultural groups. (Meyer, 2016; Kowalski, 2023)
Designing for accessibility. Ensuring that customer and employee experiences do not intentionally or unintentionally exclude groups and individuals with one or more impairments. This includes designing adaptive solutions for mobility, dexterity, visual, hearing, speech, and cognitive impairments that are effective in three distinct scenarios: long-term disability, temporary conditions, and situational limitations. (Microsoft Design, 2016; Microsoft Inclusive Design, 2023; Holmes, 2020)
Designing for intersectionality. Ensuring that customer and employee experiences address the unique needs and challenges faced by groups and individuals with diverse and intersecting identities – based on factors such as gender, race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic class – as well as the multiple forms of discrimination or privilege they may experience. This involves creating environments, workflows, and services that are attuned to the complexities and nuances of these intersecting identities, ensuring that everyone feels represented, respected, and valued. (Lupton et al., 2021; Noel, 2023)
Fostering culture of systemic equity. Building and nurturing a culture where all employees feel valued, supported, and empowered, regardless of their background and identity. This involves crafting policies, programs, playbooks, practices, services, tools, benefits, incentives, and feedback mechanisms that leverage diverse perspectives; drive diversity of thought (including style, approach, and experience); foster inclusive collaboration; support underrepresented and historically excluded groups; and promote equitable career paths within the organization. (Myers, 2012; Frost & Aladina, 2019; Brown, 2016)
Examples: Airbnb (Project Lighthouse, Open Doors Policy, Instant Book), Microsoft (Xbox Adaptive Controller), Target (Adaptive Clothing), Nike (FlyEase), Apple (in-app accessibility features), Forum Virium Helsinki (co-creating urban futures for the city of Helsinki), and IDEO (OpenIDEO, the open innovation platform, and Design Kit, the human-centered design toolkit for social innovation).
Complementary/alternative methodologies, toolkits, and resources: Collective Action Toolkit (Frog, part of Capgemini Invent). Liberating Principles & Structures (Liberating Structures). Gamestorming – playbook with 80+ games for collaborative play (Gray, Brown & Macanufo, 2010). Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making (Kaner et al., 2014). Inclusive Design Toolkit (Microsoft). Inclusive Design Toolkit (University of Cambridge). Human-Centered Design Kit (IDEO). OpenIDEO (IDEO). Equity-Centered Community Design Field Guide (Creative Reaction Lab). Equity-Centered Design Framework (Stanford d.school). Racial Equity Tools (Equity in the Center). Liberatory Design Modes (Liberatory Design). Design Justice Network Principles (Design Justice Network). Inclusive Design for Business Impact and Social Impact (Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art).
Supplementary methodologies and toolkits: Systems thinking. Critical thinking and design. Social design and innovation. Civic design. Community design. Ethnographic research. Design thinking. Behavioral design. Industrial design. Service design. UX design. Retail design. Interior design. Workplace design. Experience design. Urban planning and environmental design.
Exploring the problem space: Understanding the broader context. Defining stakeholder mindsets / archetypes / personas. Understanding user drivers, needs, goals, behaviours, and blockers in existing experiences (in close collaboration with stakeholders and end-users). Crafting mental models to highlight moments that matter, pivotal touchpoints / interactions, common pain points, and unmet needs. Uncovering deep insights across multiple research methods and sources. Crafting tentative North Star for equitable experiences, determining ambition levels, and identifying opportunity spaces for improvement. Framing or reframing challenges/problems. Brainstorming initial ideas and hypotheses. Etc.
Exploring the solution space: Finding smart, emotionally resonant solutions (in close collaboration with stakeholders and end-users). Continuously testing tentative solutions through storytelling, rapid prototyping, experimentation, and piloting. Considering scalability, sustainability, and ethical implications of all solutions. Continuously adapting, downselecting, and prioritising tentative solutions. Crafting ideal, future-state end-to-end experiences (onstage and backstage) for prioritised user segments or mindsets. Defining stakeholder, business, and social impact. Crafting compelling stories and value cases for change. Identifying roadblocks, creating roadmaps, defining requirements, and mobilising resources for implementation and sustained success. Etc.
Project sponsors: Chief Diversity Officer, Chief Inclusion Officer, Chief Accessibility Officer, CXO, CHRO, CEO, or equivalent
Desired outcomes: ↑ service/experience accessibility, ↑ service/experience equitability, ↑ user empowerment, ↑ community trust and engagement, ↑ inclusion and representation in innovation & design processes, ↑ DEI-related metrics, ↑ employee engagement and retention, ↑ customer satisfaction and NPS, ↑ brand differentiation, ↑ brand reputation, ↑ brand engagement and loyalty
Note: Thank you, AnnaRose Girvin, Lead Experience Designer at Method, for serving as such a valuable sounding board for this blog post. Any mistakes or shortcomings in the final piece are entirely my responsibility.
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.
Brown, J. (2016). Inclusion: Diversity, the new workplace & the will to change. Advantage Media Group.
Brown, J. & Isaacs, D. (2005). The world café: Shaping our futures through conversations that matter. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Frost, S. & Aladina, R-F. (2019). Building an inclusive organization: Leveraging the power of a diverse workforce. Kogan Page.
Gray, D., Brown, S. & Macanufo, J. (2010). Gamestorming: A playbook for innovators, rulebreakers, and changemakers. O’Reilly Media.
Holmes, K. (2020). Mismatch: How inclusion shapes design. MIT Press.
Kaner et al. (2014). Facilitator’s guide to participatory decision-making (3rd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Knapp, J., Zeratsky, J. & Kowitz, B. (2016). Sprint: How to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days. Bantam Press.
Kowalski, S. (2023). Cultural sensitivity training: Developing the basis for effective intercultural communication. Econcise.
Linares, M. (2021, April). Frameworks for measuring product inclusion and product equity. Medium.
Lipmanowicz, H. & McCandless, K. (2014). The surprising power of liberating structures: Simple rules to unleash a culture of innovation. Liberating Structures Press.
Lupton et al. (2021). Extra bold: A feminist, inclusive, anti-racist, nonbinary field guide for graphic designers. Princeton Architectural Press.
Meyer, E. (2016). The culture map: Decoding how people think, lead, and get things done across cultures. PublicAffairs.
Myers, V. (2012). Moving diversity forward: How to go from well-meaning to well-doing. American Bar Association.
Microsoft Design. (2016). Inclusive 101 guidebook. Microsoft.
Microsoft Inclusive Design. (2023). Cognitive exclusion. Microsoft.
Noel, L-A. (2023). Design social change: Take action, work toward equity, and challenge status quo. A Stanford d.school guide. Ten Speed Press.
Going for gold • 4
Service Design for Operational Excellence
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 Operational Excellence.
4. Service Design for Operational Excellence
Purpose: Crafting approaches, strategies, services, processes, and tools to improve service productivity, quality, and profitability. Service quality is defined as a “high standard of performance that consistently meets or exceeds customer expectations” (Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016).
Note: See also my blog posts Going for gold • 5 and Lean & mean innovation machine • 1.
Common themes: The Toyota Way. Lean thinking. DOWNTIME (8 types of waste). Customer focus and feedback (Voice of the Customer). Service performance, productivity, and quality. Process mapping, journey mapping, and flow charting. Service quality gaps. Standardizing and optimizing workflows. Digitizing and digitalizing processes. Standardisation. Demand patterns, demand management, and capacity management. Automation and RPA (robotic process automation). Continuous learning and improvement. Kaizen. Data-driven, fact-based decision making. Simulation and modelling. Agile ways of working. ISO certification. Return on Quality. Etc.
Project archetypes:
Designing for waste elimination. Streamlining service processes (for value facilitation and co-creation) to reduce variability, inefficiencies, and environmental impact while enhancing service productivity and quality. Key strategies include identifying and reducing sources of waste (think: DOWNTIME); eliminating non-value-added activities, ensuring every step adds value from the customer’s perspective; digitizing and digitalizing processes and workflows; and establishing robust protocols and procedures for effective complaint handling and service recovery.
Note: See the four project archetypes below for additional strategies to minimize waste and maximize customer value.
Example: Amazon uses data-driven decision-making, lean supply chain practices, and advanced automation to streamline operations.
Designing for standardization and adaptability. Balancing standardization and adaptability to create reliable and repeatable systems, processes, and servicescapes that can be easily replicated or scaled (across different contexts, locations, and time zones) while maintaining the same levels of service quality, productivity, and profitability. This may involve taking a modular approach, where certain components are standardized to ensure consistency and efficiency (such as CRM systems, production processes, and onboarding), while other components are adapted to fit local needs and preferences (such as service delivery processes, marketing activities, and DEI training).
Note: Replicating involves duplicating service processes and systems exactly as they are in different contexts or locations. Scaling involves expanding service capabilities to handle increased volume, complexity, or geographical reach. (Inspired by Grönroos, 2007; Normann, 2000.)
Example: McDonald’s standardizes cooking processes, equipment, and training programs while localising (to a certain degree) restaurant designs, menu items, and marketing campaigns.
Designing for automation and augmentation in a team-centric way. Automating tasks and workflows using the power of NLP, RPA, and Intelligent Automation to improve accuracy, reduce time-to-completion, ensure reliability, enhance service productivity, elevate service quality, free up capacity, and improve quality of life (see, e.g., Gupta, 2023; Porwal, 2024). Additionally, by augmenting human capabilities with next-gen AI and XR technologies, project teams can evolve into ‘superteams,’ where human and non-human team members work seamlessly side by side (Schwartz et al., 2020). This approach is particularly valuable during moments in the project lifecycle that benefit from increased firepower and alternative perspectives – such as sensemaking, systematic ideation, or participatory decision-making. Successful implementation of automation and augmentation requires ethical guidelines, redesigned workflows, robust tools, emotional intelligence, data governance, and intentional upskilling.
Note: Enabling or emerging technologies for automation and augmentation include ML (machine learning), NLP (natural language processing), RPA (robotic process automation), adaptive AI, IA (intelligent automation, infusing RPA with AI), cobots (collaborative robots), digital twins, MR (mixed reality, combining elements of both VR and AR), blockchain, IoT (Internet of Things), AI-powered collaboration tools, drone technology, edge computing, edge AI, etc.
Example: The Salesforce Einstein Automate platform combines RPA with AI capabilities to help clients automate a wide range of tasks and workflows, such as customer support, personalized content, patient scheduling, inventory management, loan approval, risk assessment, and so on.
Designing for optimal utilization. Balancing demand and capacity to utilize staff, labor, equipment, and facilities as productively as possible, particularly in the face of fluctuating demand. Strategies to manage capacity include stretching capacity levels and adjusting capacity to match demand. Strategies to manage demand include reducing demand in peak times, increasing demand during low periods, configuring effective queuing systems, implementing reservation systems, and reducing perceived waiting time. (Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016)
Example: Starbucks uses demand forecasting and workforce management techniques to balance staffing levels with customer demand.
Fostering culture of continuous improvement. Building and nurturing a culture of continuous improvement to sustain operational excellence and competitiveness. This involves engaging all employees in identifying and implementing improvements. It also requires consistently acting on feedback from customers, employees, and other stakeholders. Additionally, promoting life-long learning where employees continually acquire new skills and knowledge, is essential. This bottom-up and outside-in approach fosters accountability, empowerment, and customer-centricity.
Example: Ritz-Carlton conducts daily line-ups where employees gather to share stories and discuss ways to enhance service, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and exceptional customer service.
Alternative/complementary methodologies & toolkits: Lean Service for optimizing service delivery and improving workplace efficiency (with tools such as value stream mapping, service blueprinting, 5S, Kaizen, and root cause analysis). Six Sigma for improving service quality by removing the causes of defects and minimizing variability in service production and delivery processes (tools: DMAIC, VOC, SIPOC, fishbone diagrams, control charts, FMEA, etc.). Total Quality Management for enhancing the quality and performance of service delivery (tools: PDCA, SERVQUAL, QFD, service blueprinting, Pareto analysis, root cause analysis, etc.). Theory of Constraints for addressing critical bottlenecks in service delivery (tools: current reality tree, future reality tree, five focusing steps, etc.). Business Process Reengineering for fundamentally rethinking and redesigning core service processes (tools: value stream mapping, process mapping, benchmarking, gap analysis, root cause analysis, etc.). Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for automating routine, repetitive, and rule-based tasks in service production and delivery processes, Intelligent Automation (IA) for handling non-routine, complex tasks and end-to-end workflows with cognitive abilities, and Hyperautomation for automating as many business and IT processes as possible. Queue management software for managing customer flows in real-time and simulation tools for predicting and optimizing queue performance (by modelling different scenarios). Agile and the Scrum framework for managing and delivering projects in service organizations (tools: sprint planning; product and sprint backlogs; daily scrums/standups; sprint reviews and retrospectives; epics and user stories; etc.).
Supplementary methodologies & toolkits: Design thinking and human-centered design. CX and EX management. Knowledge management. Change management.
Exploring the problem space: Understanding the broader context. Identifying customer needs and pain points. Mapping existing processes. Collecting and analyzing quantitative data. Identifying areas of inefficiency/waste. Framing opportunity spaces for improvement. Determining ambition levels. Establishing objectives, defining KPIs, and setting baselines. Crafting tentative North Star. Designing provocations to challenge assumptions, provoke reactions, and stimulate discussions. Framing or reframing challenges/problems. Etc.
Exploring the solution space: Generating, screening, and prioritising improvement ideas. Continuously testing and adapting tentative solutions through storytelling, rapid prototyping, experimentation, simulation, and piloting. Defining stakeholder and business impact. Crafting compelling stories and value cases for change. Identifying roadblocks, creating roadmaps, defining requirements, and mobilising resources for implementation and sustained success. Establishing a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence – through Kaizen principles, leadership support, upskilling, continuous experimentation, feedback loops, customer involvement/co-creation, revamped performance management systems, revised KPIs, and transparent communication. Etc.
Project sponsors: CIO, COO, CHRO, CFO, CEO, or equivalent
Desired outcomes: ↑ efficiency, ↓ organizational waste, ↑ compliance, ↑ quality, ↑ cost savings, ↑ flexibility, ↑ employee engagement, ↑ customer satisfaction, ↑ customer loyalty, ↑ core/process innovation, ↑ organizational learning
Note: For a rock solid introduction to service processes, service productivity, service quality, and service performance in service organizations, check out chapters 8, 9, 14, and 15 in Wirtz & Lovelock (2016).
Power tip: For all project types, harness the power of data analytics – including descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics – to gain deep insights into past performance, forecast future trends, and recommend optimal courses of action.
Service Design for Ethical Circularity 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.
Grönroos, C. (2007). Service management and marketing: Customer management in service eompetition. John Wiley & Sons.
Gupta, S.K. (2023). The importance of human-centered automation in manufacturing. Forbes.
Normann, R. (2000). Service management: Strategy and leadership in service business. Wiley.
Porwal, Y. (2024). From RPA to Intelligent Automation to Hyperautomation – the progression of business process automation. Binmile.
Schwartz, J., et al. (2020, May). Superteams. Putting AI in the group. Deloitte.
Wirtz, J. & Lovelock, C. (2016). Services Marketing: People, technology, strategy (8th ed.). World Scientific Publishing.
Going for gold • 3
Service Design for Employee Engagement
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.
Let’s accomplish amazing things together
Nine HR services to boost team performance
Operating in a post-pandemic world, progressive HR functions play a strategic role in driving collaboration, adaptability, and innovation across organizations. The shift to more fluid operating models will inescapably lead to adaptive work structures and self-organizing teams. How might HR empower project teams to collaborate and perform dramatically better than today?
It takes hard work to work well together, especially in hybrid work environments. High-performing teams are equipped and enabled to lead with clarity, embody a growth mindset, forge healthy relationships, embrace cultural differences, and achieve outstanding results. And high-performing teams are equipped and enabled to stage equitable, engaging, and effective collaborative experiences regardless of where, when, and how team members choose to work.
Based on my experience of directing and leading North Star EX projects for large organizations since 2018, I have written an article in Touchpoint about how HR can help people accomplish amazing things together in project-based knowledge work (Bau, 2023). Please find below an overview of nine services that HR could deliver to improve collaboration and boost performance in project teams.
Nine HR services to boost team performance
As an internal service provider, HR could deliver nine types of coaching services that empower project teams to build collective intelligence, improve collaboration, and boost performance. These enabling, team-level services can be divided into three overlapping categories (Bau, 2023):
(A) Building and maintaining healthy, well-balanced teams
(B) Embracing continuous feedback, learning, and adaptation
(C) Supercharging people and teams for success
- A1. Coaching for Team Recruitment. HR service that helps leaders form well-balanced and dynamic teams in terms of aptitude, personality, diversity, size, and governance (in the context of project requirements). This service is not only offered in the project initiation phase but also in the project execution phase (as teams grow or shrink due to changing project requirements).
- A2. Coaching for Team Onboarding & Offboarding. HR service that empowers newly formed (or reconfigured) teams to lead with clarity, foster sense of belonging, build mutual trust and respect, and forge healthy relationships. Important themes include clarity of purpose, plan, and reponsibility (Rosenstein, n.d.) as well as emotional and cultural intelligence on a team level (see, e.g., Center for Creative Leadership, 2020). This service is offered in the project initiation, project execution, and project closure phases (as teams grow or shrink due to changing project requirements).
- A3. Coaching for Team Health & Wellbeing. HR service that empowers project teams to take joint responsibility for their physical, social, and mental health and wellbeing. Important themes include: healthy work/life balance; workplace health & safety; team motivation & engagement; team adaptability & resilience; team diversity, equity & inclusion; and proactive conflict management.
Bau (2023)
- B1. Coaching for Team Leadership & Appraisal. HR services that (a) equip and empower leaders to foster team growth and empowerment through servant leadership, and (b) equip and empower autonomous teams to become truly self-managing, self-designing, and self-governing. This includes new ways of recognising and rewarding performance – shifting the focus from infrequent, top-down assessments of individuals to continuous, multi-directional assessments of teams.
- B2. Coaching for Team Learning & Development. HR service that empowers teams to embark on learning journeys, foster a learning/growth mindset, and boost their learning power. Important themes include: T-shaped team members; in-project upskilling & x-skilling; ongoing, situational, and multi-directional feedback; continuous reflection, learning, and adaptation; post-project debriefing; and knowledge management.
- B3. Lean Coaching for Teams. HR service that empowers teams to make continuous improvements in projects based on uncovering, analysing, and resolving process inefficiencies, quality gaps, project impediments, performance blockers, conflict triggers, blind spots, sustainability issues, etc.
Bau (2023)
- C1. Hybrid Work Coaching for Teams. Joint HR+IT service that helps project teams stage hyper-personalised, hyper-immersive collaborative experiences regardless of where, when, and how team members choose to work (based on Gartner’s four collaboration modes in hybrid work environments (Baker, 2021)). This includes leveraging enabling technologies such as intelligent/smart spaces, intelligent automation, adaptive AI, cloud-based ‘superapps,’ VR/XR, spatial audio, and decentralised infrastructure. Holistic B2B solutions (hardware, software, services) for inclusive meeting experiences for people and teams exist already in the marketplace (see, for example, Microsoft Teams Rooms with Logitech products such as Rally Bar, Sight, and Scribe).
- C2. Performance Coaching for Teams. HR service that proactively guides teams in moments that matter in the project lifecycle to unleash human potential, foster creativity, and boost performance based on thinking modes, collective intelligence, best practices, ideal workflows, and continuous feedback. This service is important for moments in the project lifecycle that have an oversized impact on team performance and value co-creation, such as data collection & sensemaking, ideation & concepting, and participatory decision-making.
- C3. Coaching for Team Augmentation. Joint HR+IT service that empowers teams to work seamlessly with the emerging capabilities of machine learning, adaptive AI, intelligent automation, and cobots (collaborative robots). This includes crafting ethical guidelines, redesigning workflows, introducing tools, and building capabilities that help teams evolve into ‘superteams,’ where human and non-human team members work effortlessly and effectively side by side. (Adapted from Schwartz, Mallon & Van Durme, 2020) This service is important for moments in the project lifecycle that would benefit from increased firepower and alternative points of view, such as data collection & sensemaking, ideation & concepting, continuous feedback & improvement, and participatory decision-making.
Bau (2023)
Core and supplementary touchpoints
All nine services would be delivered primarily through on-site or remote in-person coaching. Supplementary touchpoints range from customisable how-to guides and playbooks to AI-assisted chatbots and team simulations (Bau, 2023). See the HR engagement matrix, figure 1.
Figure 1. The HR engagement matrix: Four types of touchpoints in team coaching services (Bau, 2023)
To learn more about the ins and outs of collaboration, high-performing teams, and the strategic roles HR can play to boost team performance, please check out my article ‘Empowering people to accomplish amazing things together’ in Touchpoint Vol. 14 No. 1 (Bau, 2023). (Touchpoint is the journal of service design published by SDN; in this issue, you will find plenty of interesting articles about the intersection of service design and employee experience.)
References
Baker, M. (June 14, 2021). 4 modes of collaboration are key to success in hybrid work. Gartner.
Bau, R. (2023). Empowering people to accomplish amazing things together. Nine HR services to dramatically boost team performance. Touchpoint, 14(1), 72–77.
Center for Creative Leadership. (2020, September 9). Leading a multicultural team. www.ccl.org.
Rosenstein, J. (n.d.). How to lead with clarity of purpose, plan, and responsibility. Wavelength. Asana.
Schwartz, J., Mallon, D., & Van Durme, Y. (2020, May 15). Superteams: Putting AI in the group. Deloitte.