GUEST POST from Douglas Ferguson

A few years ago Voltage Control surveyed nearly 100 leaders on culture, mental health, DEI, experience, hybrid, leadership, facilitation, collaboration, technology, and change (in case you missed it). Within the findings, we explore leaders’ challenges, capability gaps, and opportunities to adapt to the current workplace ecosystem more effectively, in order to define a working maturity model. The maturity model is a snapshot of trends across the nearly 100 leaders we heard from, combining quotes with findings from a survey. Download Work Now 2023 here. (you can also get the 2022 edition at the same time)

Workplace culture and diversity are essential to co-creation and participatory design.  

Participatory design is a driving force in our innovation practice. The unique design methodology opens the door to rich conversations and remarkable collaboration. With this approach to design, participants are invited into the process of investigating, reflecting, developing, and essentially co-creating your products or services.

With engaging design processes in place, these sessions capture the needs of all participants in a hierarchical manner. As opposed to us telling customers or clients what they need, this approach allows for key stakeholders to show us what matters to them.

We’ve spent years practicing and incorporating this methodology into workshops and design sprints. What we discovered is invaluable: diversity is key.

Our team at Voltage Control found that in order to truly overcome bias and move industries forward, diversity in participants throughout this design process is vital. Hosting inclusive spaces in this co-design experience will lend itself to more ideas and fuel irreplicable growth.

Straight from our Work Now 2023 findings, here’s what leaders should ask themselves regarding their workplace culture before leading inclusive participatory design sessions:

• How might we support organizations in (re)defining their cultures at this moment and beyond?
• How might we enable leaders to communicate and co-create a shared culture—including to remote and hybrid teams?
• For leaders who created a culture of “increased transparency of communication and encouraged virtual gatherings”—what would need to change so these practices are not lost as remote work time decreases?
• How might we enable leaders to co-create meaningful work experiences with their teams in order to enhance environments of trust and collaboration?

For more on cultivating diverse teams and improving your participatory design strategy, join us in our Liberating Structure series where we will lead you in unleashing creativity in your meetings through maximum participation.

Douglas Ferguson | President, Voltage Control

Image credit: Pexels

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