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Management by design
30 June 2011
Today’s businesses have become much more than places of work. Workplaces, from factory floors to work done from home, influence how we see ourselves. Directors and managers fail to understand that the work experience is as important to quality execution as processes, technology or the appearance of the workplace. Management by Design, a new book by Daniel W. Rasmus, points out that a business spends millions of dollars defining customer experiences, but invests precious little to create engaging worker experiences.
The methodology of Management by Design starts with the simple premise that we can’t improve something we haven’t designed. Work lives tend to be emergent, contingent and filled with historical momentum. With Management by Design, every workplace experience starts the idea of balance, by identifying the multiple forces that tug and pull on those in the experience.
Take the on-boarding experience, for example. People want to learn about their role, to establish themselves, to meet people, to get some work done – they want to understand existing relationships, to get their computers to work, and they want to avoid embarrassing themselves – to name a few. Management by Design suggests that organisations should learn to recognise the needs of new workers to help balance and negotiate mutual expectations. Conflict and frustration emerge from implied or opaque priorities left to worker discovery. Explicitly documenting the balance between employee and organisational needs helps establish a more trusting and productive relationship.
This is but one example at its highest level of detail. Management by Design goes on to explore how to keep multi-faceted people engaged, how to best apply technology and policy, explains the new role of space in a virtualised world, and demonstrates how to provide feedback through strategic and tactical reflection. Ultimately, Management by Design helps managers see how the momentum of organisational history can be purposefully controlled by engaging in design.
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