Touchpoint Magazine article Stefan Moritz 2013

volume 4 | no. 3 | 12,80 euro

January 2013

Cultural Change

by Service Design Living Service Worlds ÂŹ How Will Services Know What You Intend?

Shelley Evenson

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By Chris Brooker

A Time Machine for Service Designers

By Julia Leihener and Dr. Henning Breuer

global conference - cultural change by design

Sandwiches, Champions and Sliced Elephants

comms strategy

Corporate Cultural Change by Design

Stefan Moritz is Global Director of Service Solutions at Aegis Media. Featured as a notable alumnus in Business Week, Stefan has worked with numerous bluechip brands including Adidas, Disney, Nokia and Philips. He has accumulated experience from the fields of marketing, design and technology. His unique understanding of service innovation, customer experience and change management also affords him regular appointments as a keynote speaker, workshop facilitator and executive coach. He lectures at various universities across Europe.

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touchpoint

In most global companies there are competing interests that can be reduced to tensions between centralised strategy and local implementation. Finding a balance between a unified global presence and regional and local adaptation is one such challenge. Far too often, centralised direction strangles local innovation or proves culturally irrelevant or, alternatively, local independence leads to a lack of cohesion and consistency.

Aegis Media created a team to respond to these challenges. It involved key stakeholders responsible for HR, IT, strategy, process and tools in an attempt to re-evaluate the way they worked both internally and with their clients.

Service design was used internally as a way of thinking, and also as a practical methodology. It was adopted to suit the internal culture and became a driver for the redesign of processes, roles and tools.

After three years, the approach has not been problem-free but, looking at a before and after picture, it shows just how far this way of thinking has benefited and changed the corporate culture.

Many global companies are led from the centre, often by people with very similar backgrounds and professional experience. Until recently, Aegis Media’s central London office dictated strategy and instructed markets on how to operate,

measuring all success in economic terms. The local markets in turn were left in peace, as long as they delivered on the bottom line. This resulted in some markets believing they knew best, ignoring any and all strategic direction coming from the centre. When something went wrong, the solution was to parachute someone in to fix the problem and then leave. So when the idea of the Service Solutions Board was introduced, the aim was to create a multidimensional, interdisciplinary team that could foster sustainable cultural change.

From the outset, it was essential, from a design perspective, to begin with five clear principles that would stand behind this change: first, it was a reversed approach, from push to pull, and a decision was taken not to force ideas on people but rather to make them attractive and desired; second was introducing

research & tools

business innovation

technology/it

the concept of continuous improvement and involvement, encouraging participation and allowing prototyping to become a method by which new ideas could be tested, improved or rejected; third was what came to be known as the ‘sandwich’ approach: the recognition that culture change in any company needs both a top-down and bottom-up approach simultaneously. It is essential that senior management be visibly involved and engage the views and opinions of those who actually do the work; fourth was the importance of monitoring progress: “What is measured gets done”; and last was the concept of not taking on the whole problem at once, but rather in parts, something we called “slicing the elephant”.

service solutions board

sharing

digital innovation

people

In order to make sure that new ideas took root and became implemented, it was important to ensure that there were two things in place: a global budget requirement and local advocacy. By making it a requirement that a specific percentage of any market’s budget be directed to the changes underway, we ensured that there was no excuse for not making such changes. Creating a network of local champions who had the task of leading the implementation had the dual effect of making the changes locally touchpoint 21

global conference - cultural change by design

Sandwiches, Champions and Sliced Elephants

comms strategy

Corporate Cultural Change by Design

Stefan Moritz is Global Director of Service Solutions at Aegis Media. Featured as a notable alumnus in Business Week, Stefan has worked with numerous bluechip brands including Adidas, Disney, Nokia and Philips. He has accumulated experience from the fields of marketing, design and technology. His unique understanding of service innovation, customer experience and change management also affords him regular appointments as a keynote speaker, workshop facilitator and executive coach. He lectures at various universities across Europe.

20

touchpoint

In most global companies there are competing interests that can be reduced to tensions between centralised strategy and local implementation. Finding a balance between a unified global presence and regional and local adaptation is one such challenge. Far too often, centralised direction strangles local innovation or proves culturally irrelevant or, alternatively, local independence leads to a lack of cohesion and consistency.

Aegis Media created a team to respond to these challenges. It involved key stakeholders responsible for HR, IT, strategy, process and tools in an attempt to re-evaluate the way they worked both internally and with their clients.

Service design was used internally as a way of thinking, and also as a practical methodology. It was adopted to suit the internal culture and became a driver for the redesign of processes, roles and tools.

After three years, the approach has not been problem-free but, looking at a before and after picture, it shows just how far this way of thinking has benefited and changed the corporate culture.

Many global companies are led from the centre, often by people with very similar backgrounds and professional experience. Until recently, Aegis Media’s central London office dictated strategy and instructed markets on how to operate,

measuring all success in economic terms. The local markets in turn were left in peace, as long as they delivered on the bottom line. This resulted in some markets believing they knew best, ignoring any and all strategic direction coming from the centre. When something went wrong, the solution was to parachute someone in to fix the problem and then leave. So when the idea of the Service Solutions Board was introduced, the aim was to create a multidimensional, interdisciplinary team that could foster sustainable cultural change.

From the outset, it was essential, from a design perspective, to begin with five clear principles that would stand behind this change: first, it was a reversed approach, from push to pull, and a decision was taken not to force ideas on people but rather to make them attractive and desired; second was introducing

research & tools

business innovation

technology/it

the concept of continuous improvement and involvement, encouraging participation and allowing prototyping to become a method by which new ideas could be tested, improved or rejected; third was what came to be known as the ‘sandwich’ approach: the recognition that culture change in any company needs both a top-down and bottom-up approach simultaneously. It is essential that senior management be visibly involved and engage the views and opinions of those who actually do the work; fourth was the importance of monitoring progress: “What is measured gets done”; and last was the concept of not taking on the whole problem at once, but rather in parts, something we called “slicing the elephant”.

service solutions board

sharing

digital innovation

people

In order to make sure that new ideas took root and became implemented, it was important to ensure that there were two things in place: a global budget requirement and local advocacy. By making it a requirement that a specific percentage of any market’s budget be directed to the changes underway, we ensured that there was no excuse for not making such changes. Creating a network of local champions who had the task of leading the implementation had the dual effect of making the changes locally touchpoint 21

global conference - cultural change by design

1) Companies are made of people, and building communities, supporting ideas and publicly giving recognition to people is essential to develop a sense of involvement and encourage accountability.

THINK FOR ME

DO FOR ME

Local Regional Global

Added value to client

HELP ME THINK

Added value for provider

“When the idea of the Service Solutions Board was introduced, the aim was to create a multidimensional, interdisciplinary team that could foster sustainable cultural change.”

22

touchpoint

Stepping up in value relevant and building a global community for support, information exchange and feedback. When this was coupled with continuous measurement, the areas that needed the most attention became clear.

The system was extremely simple: each market was rated according to specific criteria and colour-coded green for ‘good progress’, yellow for ‘middling’ and red as warning of no progress. Regardless of whether this was assessing the adoption of a new universal communications planning methodology, use of particular tools or the capacity to deliver specific services, it gave the markets and the central team a continuously-updated and unambiguous picture of the situation.

This was then linked directly to the support infrastructure, so that solutions could be managed collaboratively.

We learned many things while working through this process, but the following summary includes those that stood out:

2) Embrace diversity – differences in terms of background, ethnicity, professional ability and culture must be celebrated in order for a global company to undergo global change. On every occasion that we compiled advisory groups, put together community forums or presented examples, we tried to ensure that we were inclusive and reflected the diversity of the whole company.

3) There are no quick changes when one is dealing with culture. The older methods of dictating change apparently gave immediate results but, when analysed, it was clear that the changes made by a market in such cases were often superficial or misleading.

4) Real cultural change revealed gaps, not always something people wanted to show or admit, necessitating that a large part of designing change must be focused on expectation management. At the same time, seeing gaps is the basis for planning solutions, and when this is linked to ideas of prototyping, the direction for such solutions is much clearer.

The key to applying service design principles for changing company culture turns on understanding the extant culture before trying to change it, recognising that people in all their diversity are at the centre of everything and that it is at the nitty-gritty level of real, tangible experience that the prospect of accepted and long term change lies. Whilst some of these things may seem self evident, the top-down, bottom-up, ‘sandwich’ approach, the development of genuine communities of advocates and champions and ‘slicing the elephant’ to take on one part at a time, all proved to be critical in starting the process of remodelling. One can dictate change, of course. But as we have seen in examples from world politics, international corporations and local governments, the processes towards real change must be based on listening rather than simply instructing.

•

5) Making things as tangible as possible is key to success.

For example, when we made a magazine that presented how a new senior management role bridging the Aegis Media brands would look, it immediately made it clear to the Aegis executive board whether this was a direction they were prepared to go in. In fact, in this case it was not, but the prototype visualisation was clearly the instrument that brought this to light. In a similar way, the traffic-light scorecard gave a palpable sense of where people stood. The net result was that some of the markets made radical changes, altered their business models or looked to extend their service offerings in order to align themselves better with company aims.

touchpoint 23

global conference - cultural change by design

1) Companies are made of people, and building communities, supporting ideas and publicly giving recognition to people is essential to develop a sense of involvement and encourage accountability.

THINK FOR ME

DO FOR ME

Local Regional Global

Added value to client

HELP ME THINK

Added value for provider

“When the idea of the Service Solutions Board was introduced, the aim was to create a multidimensional, interdisciplinary team that could foster sustainable cultural change.”

22

touchpoint

Stepping up in value relevant and building a global community for support, information exchange and feedback. When this was coupled with continuous measurement, the areas that needed the most attention became clear.

The system was extremely simple: each market was rated according to specific criteria and colour-coded green for ‘good progress’, yellow for ‘middling’ and red as warning of no progress. Regardless of whether this was assessing the adoption of a new universal communications planning methodology, use of particular tools or the capacity to deliver specific services, it gave the markets and the central team a continuously-updated and unambiguous picture of the situation.

This was then linked directly to the support infrastructure, so that solutions could be managed collaboratively.

We learned many things while working through this process, but the following summary includes those that stood out:

2) Embrace diversity – differences in terms of background, ethnicity, professional ability and culture must be celebrated in order for a global company to undergo global change. On every occasion that we compiled advisory groups, put together community forums or presented examples, we tried to ensure that we were inclusive and reflected the diversity of the whole company.

3) There are no quick changes when one is dealing with culture. The older methods of dictating change apparently gave immediate results but, when analysed, it was clear that the changes made by a market in such cases were often superficial or misleading.

4) Real cultural change revealed gaps, not always something people wanted to show or admit, necessitating that a large part of designing change must be focused on expectation management. At the same time, seeing gaps is the basis for planning solutions, and when this is linked to ideas of prototyping, the direction for such solutions is much clearer.

The key to applying service design principles for changing company culture turns on understanding the extant culture before trying to change it, recognising that people in all their diversity are at the centre of everything and that it is at the nitty-gritty level of real, tangible experience that the prospect of accepted and long term change lies. Whilst some of these things may seem self evident, the top-down, bottom-up, ‘sandwich’ approach, the development of genuine communities of advocates and champions and ‘slicing the elephant’ to take on one part at a time, all proved to be critical in starting the process of remodelling. One can dictate change, of course. But as we have seen in examples from world politics, international corporations and local governments, the processes towards real change must be based on listening rather than simply instructing.

•

5) Making things as tangible as possible is key to success.

For example, when we made a magazine that presented how a new senior management role bridging the Aegis Media brands would look, it immediately made it clear to the Aegis executive board whether this was a direction they were prepared to go in. In fact, in this case it was not, but the prototype visualisation was clearly the instrument that brought this to light. In a similar way, the traffic-light scorecard gave a palpable sense of where people stood. The net result was that some of the markets made radical changes, altered their business models or looked to extend their service offerings in order to align themselves better with company aims.

touchpoint 23