Design is change: how to use insights and artifacts from the process to enable it
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Iām writing because education wasn't designed around students, but we can improve the learner experience through design. I share stories, tips, and work in progress weekly.
Why it matters: Change and design are an integrated effort. Change management in higher education is difficult. By considering stakeholder needs in the change process and reflecting on what different design tools can contribute to satisfying them, you can powerfully inform your change efforts with insights from the design process to successfully implement change.
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The most successful leaders Iāve worked with in the design process understood a fundamental truth: design is change. In its ideal, design facilitates a change that aligns a product or experience more closely with stakeholder needs, but itās change nonetheless. Someoneās ācheeseā will be moved. Someoneās experience of the area the work is taking place will shift.
Through my work at EAB leading change management focused on student success initiatives for dozens of Universities alongside senior academic leaders, I know change in higher education isnāt easy (though when it works it can be transformativeā see an example from my work with Middle Tennessee State University in the Chronicle for Higher Education).
The good news is that many of the aspects of the design toolkit surface the necessary framing and materials to build awareness, engagement, support, and advocacy for the change that results from the design process. And in doing so, it can also offer transparency into the process of the design approach used to identify the challenges taking place and their resulting āsolutions.ā
As I put together the Innovation Lab methods and tools for a community college, the focus on implementation and change management in the test and learn phase of the innovation process was front and center. No doubt the design process itself will transform project teams and how they invest in the problem and eventually the approach to overcome it, but my guidance here is ultimately focused on how to prepare to launch the new tests and initiatives that emerge through the process to stakeholders involved and beyond on campus.
Too often Iāve watched good designs with lots of invested energy fall flat on campus because they thought the solution would speak for itself. Or because the project team believed in it, others on campus would as well. Done well, the design process involves stakeholders throughout the process to build engagement, feedback, and buy-in, but eventually the design will reach those who were not directly or indirectly involved in the process.
Rather than focus on the change process which must adapt to the context in which a change is being introduced, below are some of the core ingredients Iāve found to be most salient in driving effective change initiatives.
These can take many forms, but the fundamental needs that we have to understand and buy-in to change ultimately organize into three parts:
āļøStakeholders need to know why the change is necessary and put it in context to what the organization values and prioritizes. This aspect of articulating the need for change anchors on the envisioned future state and focuses on the big goals like āimproved student experienceā or ābetter student outcomes.ā Importantly, it offers some criteria or measurement on how the change must manifest in the world.
š ļø Design tools like āHow might we...ā questions, ideal state, or design criteria help to clarify and envision the future with the solution identified and achieved and what a solution must do to address identified needs.
šÆ Stakeholders need to know why (you think) this change is the right one to address the needs of the audience affected by it and connect to it. A common tactic that drives the kind of inspiration and motivation to invest in the importance of a change is a āposter childā that represents who is affected most by the situation today. This approach brings the problem to life and helps drive investment in solving it.
š ļø Design offers tools like Gallery Walks, empathy maps, personas and problem statements bring peopleās experiences to life and help offer insight into what needs changing and why. They tell us who and how people are experiencing the problem, how itās affecting them today, and create personal connection towards the change effort for stakeholders to invest in supporting.
š«µ Stakeholders need to know whatās expected of them in the change and how to enable it. Once people are invested, they need tools for organization and action. They need guidance and clarity about how they will contribute and participate in the change, especially because change in design is driven by testing and iteration.
š ļø Design tools like napkin pitches, service blueprints, and testing plans bring ideas to life and into action. They help align teams on what the objectives of the new interventions or ideas are and help define success criteria. They also create a common understanding of how the proposed solution works and what a test is meant to help us learn as we make progress on solving the problem.
None of these needs are fully addressed in a single message, event, or interaction. They take time and scaffolding to build awareness, investment, and engagement over time. Importantly, sharing the tools themselves wonāt necessarily bring stakeholders along in the processā but the insights surfaced as a result of using these tools offer the raw materials to shape and integrate into workshops, meetings, presentations, emails, and other moments and milestones for facilitating change management.
But doing the work of design in the process of investigating a challenge and using the tools, resources, and insights from the process to drive the content of change milestones, youāre far more likely to build the necessary buy-in and overcome resistance to change.
š ļø Iāve developed a template for early comms plan and milestones for introducing a change on your campus informed by design tools.
š Subscribe to Learning, Designed and comment āmake change in higher edā on this post and Iām happy to share in exchange for your feedback!
Insights from the Field
Bringing you voices from across education to answer:
What advice would you give to someone driving change in education?
āDriving meaningful change in HE benefits from an understanding of our organizational context and the nuances of types of change (ex. organic vs. designed). Change is always happening, but not all change is the sameāinnovation, strategic shifts, and transformation each require different approaches. Higher education is uniquely complex, and what works in one institution or department may not work in another, even within the exact same category of institution.
Equally important, itās been my experience that change is about relationships and communication as much as any specific theoretical framework. Success depends on engaging stakeholders, building trust, and clearly articulating the purpose behind the new work.
Lastly, it is essential to continually ask what success looks and feels like across all involved. We should assume the destination is continuously shifting, and likely looks slightly different to everyone around the table. We all bring our unique perspectives and biases into change work. To that end, no solution will ever be fully complete. But that is the nature of change in educationāit is an ongoing process of progress and adaptation, rather than a fixed endpoint. More so now than I've ever experienced during my time in academia.ā
Chief Design Officer, Clinical Assistant Professor at Arizona State University and Higher Education Advisor
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Love this. I've also found that without acknowledging that there are elements of the system (or program or initiative, etc.) that are going well, that don't need to change but rather need to be amplified, you can lose trust or momentum. People rarely write emails saying things are going well. It's important to call that out in the process of moving forward.