Page 193 - The Design Thinking Playbook

What is it that successful businesses do differently?

Successful businesses gear all their activities and all areas as well as their employees toward the cus- A unifying and integrating meaning that can be enshrined using
tomer. In addition, they integrate the customer and his needs deep in their strategy, such as by creating an the mindset of design thinking helps to implement transformation.
enhanced awareness of strategic foresight. They put the focus on customer interaction and the design of As a creative tool, design thinking can fulfill a methodological role
worlds of experience. in the transformation of the company by providing important tools.
The human-centered approach helps to establish orientation toward
In many companies, this requires a radical change in the usual understanding of leadership, away from the customer, which includes considering colleagues from other
the leadership doctrine of an omnipotent management toward a leadership culture (and a mindset) that departments as customers as well. In our experience, effective design
enables the organization to overcome this functionally acting structure. The change in the understanding of thinking can optimally unfold only in an integrated organization.
leadership is also seen as a necessary step toward an integrated organizational form in which employees
develop a high degree of intrinsic motivation but, at the same time, direct their activities toward an over-
riding goal shared by the entire organization.

The path to the integration phase, however, starts in the so-called
pioneer phase, in which the organization is often built around a
leading figure. Then the company grows and diversifies into different
areas. In the process, different cultures and silos evolve. This phase
is characterized by efficiency and effectiveness. Only then can an or-
ganism come into being that ensures that these systems are perfectly
matched with one another. For this reason, organizations must be
reorganized and rebuilt at regular intervals. In nature, an apple tree
must be cut and pruned for it to yield a rich harvest again and again.

1. PIONEER 2. DIVERSIFICATION 3. INTEGRATION
PHASE PHASE PHASE
An organization built Emergence of a A holistic structure or
around a leading figure comprehensible and system
>> family manageable structure >> organism
192 >> machine