Design is Everything
“Everything is designed. Few things are designed well.” – Brian Reed
Design is an important focus in many large corporations and academia. Individuals who possess design skills – both product design and business process modeling – are in demand. We can all learn from the “design movement.” The purpose of this essay is to point out how a design perspective can help you get better results in both your daily routines and in new endeavors.
Design is all about intention. What is your intention when you start any endeavor, conversation, or presentation? What do you seek to achieve personally and what do you hope to convey to or share with others? Is it all about you? That’s okay if it is something you have to do for your own edification. More often than not, however, learning something new means sharing with others. Before we discuss taking on something new, let’s talk about the mundane task of getting stuff done during the day.
Planning your Day
“The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” – Stephen R. Covey
Before we talk about starting that new project, let’s look at how you start your day. I don’t know how many tasks you accomplish in a single day but let’s say that you have 100 items on your list. If so, not all of them can be top priority. Some clearly have more importance than others. Your ultimate priority for the day is to design your waking hours so that you are satisfied with your level of accomplishment and have fewer tasks carrying over to the next day.
The real work starts the night before. Do you have a solid idea of the time-sequenced set of steps you will take to accomplish tasks the next day? Do you use a calendar to plan the day? Do you cluster activities geographically or in your office or home to maximize your presence in any one location? Do you have your list in front of you? Do you check off those items you have completed so that you can get an emotional lift from accomplishing each task?
The significance of having a well-executed day is that it creates a mindset of success for taking on bigger things. If you can’t handle your daily routine how are you going to take on bigger projects? It is the discipline of managing a successful day that develops a winning attitude so you can feel confident about doing bigger work. If every task you take on is like reinventing the wheel, you will be stuck with a lot of small things controlling your life and never really get to that very interesting thing that captivates your imagination. So the message here is to:
- Prioritize your to-do list
- Plan your day
- Time-sequence your list
- Decide what you are not going to attempt during the day
- Cluster your activities to maximize your presence in each location throughout the day
- Acknowledge your accomplishments
Starting a New Project
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo Da Vinci
It is important to ask yourself questions as part of the planning process before launching any new undertaking. The questions you ask help you get your arms around what you are trying to accomplish and develop your plan for getting them done. Stephen Covey had it right when he developed one of his seven habits: “Begin with the end in mind.” Thinking about where you are going, imagining what it looks like getting there, and envisioning the final product has the following benefits:
- Creates a sense of direction and provides a mental picture of completion
- Facilitates the measurement of the gap between where you are now and where you need to be
- Focuses your attention on problem solving and systematic processes
- Enables you to think through various steps necessary for completion
- Uncovers new ways of thinking and doing
- Exposes those resources necessary to complete your work
- Reveals your shortcomings and blind spots
This set of benefits can be experienced without too much effort, but as with any new way of looking at things, it requires a re-orientation of your thinking. You will have to move away from the residual drama and anxiety that’s often present after the exhilaration of taking on something new wears off. To some extent you have to think about the new assignment as if you are not the one on point to do it. Instead you are advising someone on how to do it. This creates a different set of eyes in the sense that it fosters objectivity rather than subjectivity in planning the project. It is only when the objective assessment is done that you introduce the subject (you) and other subjects into the mix as part of your resource planning.
It is very tempting to act without planning accordingly. Sometimes this works. However, when tasks are detailed, complexity becomes a consideration. Oftentimes, there are many more steps required and you are not the only one impacted. However, as I have said previously, simplicity provides clarity, complexity does not. You achieve simplicity by breaking down the steps and identifying the sequencing by mapping out the project. Some of the steps are sequential: e.g., you have to complete step 1 before step 3. Other steps can be concurrent: e.g., you can tackle steps 2 and 4 independently—and they can be handled by different people. But the most interesting steps are those you can eliminate or reduce in size or scope.
Once your steps and their sequencing have been outlined, then you look at your resources: time, money, materials, and people. I have never seen a project where there were unlimited resources. Inevitably there are limits. However, if you have designed the project well you can better manage your assets and hit the targeted dates for completion.
A project with many tasks resembles music played by a symphonic orchestra. During one performance you can see everyone playing together but sometimes a solo is featured. When performing together, musicians let the music written for their particular instrument determine the high and low features. There are also quiet spaces between the notes which enhance how members of the orchestra perform each apiece. It is quite elegant and it takes a lot of care and attention to create a masterpiece.
You have heard the expression: “I love it when a plan comes together.” It is the process of figuring things out that engages us at a very high level of focus and concentration. It can be extremely satisfying. Contrast that sense of accomplishment to those instances when we simply jump into things and everything seems chaotic. Some people can cope with this, and they can do this very well. Most of us cannot. If we attempt to “wing it” on a large project, we will end up doing most of the work ourselves without a team providing assistance.
Other Design Applications
“Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent.” – Joe Sparano
Whenever I think of design I think of situations other than those daily routines or special projects. I think about designing an identity with a companion mission for a business or other organization. I also think about designing a culture, an organization chart, and well-defined positions in the company to support the mission. Lastly, I think about how workflow will be arranged to enable the company to achieve its objectives in the most efficient and effective manner possible.
Sometimes this work is done on a cursory basis at the time the organization is formed because most companies fall short in recognizing the importance of developing a clear positioning and value proposition. In those situations where the entity grows rapidly, intentional design has to come into play to avoid a train wreck and to handle the work. Small, entrepreneurial organizations often stay small because they are not designed to be scalable. Instead, they are owner personality-dependent and are not very well planned.
Many organizations function pretty well. They get work done on a systematic basis without a lot of drama and heartache. But they can be even better. The reason companies don’t take it to the next level is because they get hung up in the day-to-day operations management. They do not take the time to sit back and reflect on how they can do things better and, create more rewarding careers for their employees simultaneously. If companies took the opportunity to reflect in this way, they would have a more satisfied work force and we would have a happier country. The thrust of most companies is cost-cutting which centers on creating efficiency. A better emphasis is on maximizing effectiveness, a focus that results in development of meaningful content, value customers, productive employees, and satisfied owners. Good organizational design is a noble effort.
“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
And, there is more, there always is.
Be genuine.
Copyright 2014 © John J. Trakselis, Chicago CEO Coaching
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