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IMPLEMENTATION PARTNER
April 2023
What working “behind the curtain” in professional services has taught me...
As an in-house design leader over the last decade, there were many valuable insights gained during this time. From the effectiveness of healthy systems and processes to the fragility of the many interdependencies, businesses really do carry the weight of responsibility for their own success and their own future.
Within your professional services role and on any given day, how often has it taken you a frustrating amount of time to complete something seemingly simple? Whether it was putting a document together or even locating the right template, there are times when a mind-boggling amount of chargeable time is spent on non-chargeable work. These tasks might feel repetitive or even inexplicable.
When systems, processes, and efficiencies are lacking, it can be incredibly frustrating for staff. Staff can spend a good percentage of their time doing avoidable or repetitive tasks, and they can become frustrated, or worse, disengaged.
So how do we fix it?
Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Nor does it occur with a designer charging forwards on their own. Rather, it takes a community of the right people and the right climate to flourish. Innovation happens when leaders enable or inspire others to see past short-term performance goals and to take a long-range view of what a better future might look like.
And where to start?
You could start by defining the problem. A design-led approach might start with mapping out the internal landscape, the interdependencies, the technologies, the people, and how it all connects. This can be a big task and an important one. Sometimes, however, innovation can start with something as simple as listening to your people. Not through surveys, but by sitting with them in the trenches. Go to where they are, listen to what they are going through day-to-day. Really listen. Good communication outcomes only occur when you start by meeting someone where they are at.
I was once gifted an opportunity to innovate by leading the design and implementation of an online platform, which only arose because I could hear the audible frustrations from staff over a considerable period of time. While nobody asked me to innovate to solve this particular problem, I was certainly supported by forward-leaning managers who also believed in the investment. It was a case of ‘the right people and the right climate.’
It takes a bold leader to be willing to trust in a design-led investment they cannot see, let alone define a return on investment for. But bold leaders are out there, actively seeking the right people to collaborate with on design-led solutions.
Are you a bold leader?
April 2023
What working “behind the curtain” in professional services has taught me...
As an in-house design leader over the last decade, there were many valuable insights gained during this time. From the effectiveness of healthy systems and processes to the fragility of the many interdependencies, businesses really do carry the weight of responsibility for their own success and their own future.
Within your professional services role and on any given day, how often has it taken you a frustrating amount of time to complete something seemingly simple? Whether it was putting a document together or even locating the right template, there are times when a mind-boggling amount of chargeable time is spent on non-chargeable work. These tasks might feel repetitive or even inexplicable.
When systems, processes, and efficiencies are lacking, it can be incredibly frustrating for staff. Staff can spend a good percentage of their time doing avoidable or repetitive tasks, and they can become frustrated, or worse, disengaged.
So how do we fix it?
Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Nor does it occur with a designer charging forwards on their own. Rather, it takes a community of the right people and the right climate to flourish. Innovation happens when leaders enable or inspire others to see past short-term performance goals and to take a long-range view of what a better future might look like.
And where to start?
You could start by defining the problem. A design-led approach might start with mapping out the internal landscape, the interdependencies, the technologies, the people, and how it all connects. This can be a big task and an important one. Sometimes, however, innovation can start with something as simple as listening to your people. Not through surveys, but by sitting with them in the trenches. Go to where they are, listen to what they are going through day-to-day. Really listen. Good communication outcomes only occur when you start by meeting someone where they are at.
I was once gifted an opportunity to innovate by leading the design and implementation of an online platform, which only arose because I could hear the audible frustrations from staff over a considerable period of time. While nobody asked me to innovate to solve this particular problem, I was certainly supported by forward-leaning managers who also believed in the investment. It was a case of ‘the right people and the right climate.’
It takes a bold leader to be willing to trust in a design-led investment they cannot see, let alone define a return on investment for. But bold leaders are out there, actively seeking the right people to collaborate with on design-led solutions.
Are you a bold leader?
