Bringing Design into organisations is hardly ever straight forward. It comes with its own unique set of problems.
We discuss with thought leaders around the world, what has worked for them in enabling a design revolution to occur.
Within our podcast, we specifically ask how might Design improve social and civic outcomes. We shine a light on Design in local council and Governments.
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Heather Hansen ‘Unmuted: Breaking Language Barriers and Redefining Communication in Organizations’
Episode 113
Thursday, July 20, 2023 • Duration 38:27
Hello and welcome to another episode of This is HCD. I'm delighted to have you with me for another cracking episode this time with Heather Hansen.. author of the book Unmuted a fantastic book for anyone practicing their craft in organisations who strive to improve comprehension, understanding and better and more effective use of language.
As many of you will probably know, my name is Gerry Scullion and I'm a service designer based in Ireland. I offer service design training, user experience design training and also my Visualisation Methods for Change Makers course on my website and offer this in house for businesses. So if you're in an organisation and looking for training, please get in touch with me.
So let me tell you about Heather.
Heather is based in Singapore where they run Global Speech Academy, an organisation focussed on improving the quality of communication across the departments and teams. We chat in great detail about language bias. Heather comes from the US and we speak about all of that jargon that permeates the tech business such as “ping me” or “circle back” - where this comes from what and not only what underpins it but also the effect this has on a day to day basis. It’s exclusionary and exclusive.
Sarah Clearwater ‘The Intersection of Design and Leadership: Navigating the Journey’
Episode 112
Tuesday, July 11, 2023 • Duration 51:22
Today on the show I speak with Sarah Clearwater about a Design Leadership white paper that she instigated and curated, speaking to many people across various organisations. Sarah's based in New Zealand, and I drill deeper into the background of the paper.
Earlier this year, I attended a conference in Nuremberg called Teaming with AI, run by my good friends, Markus Edgar Hormess, Adam Lawrence from WorlPlayExperience and also today’s guest, Florian Bailey.
The day before the event, myself and Florian spent some time together and hung out and explored the office where he was based. In passing, Florian mentioned he also was co-founder of Etz a 2-Star Michelin restaurant. I actually thought he was joking, but no, one of his businesses was the most incredible restaurant. The reason why I thought he was joking was, I’ve watched those documentaries on how demanding these types of restaurants can be - and I knew Florian was already super busy with his User Centered Strategy business, Nurenberg Festival etc
The next day, at the event, Etz provided all the food. The food was extremely special but that wasn’t the bit that I was most interested in. I was interested in the journey that Florian and his co-founder went on to get to this point. I mentioned that I had walked around the office space, well this is the same space that Markus and Adam use for their amazing This is Service Design Doing workshops from time to time. But it’s also the same space that Florian used to test the prototype for the restaurant - where was the line of visibility, the line of interaction. I wanted to drill a little deeper into these areas and learn more about that journey, what worked, what didn’t work.
So if you’re looking for an awesome example of a world-class business that utilises service design methods - look no further.
Earlier this year, I read an article by one of my heroes, The Edge of U2 in The Guardian. The first item in his list of culture highlights, was the book of todays podcast guest, Neil Theise. Like me, The Edge managed to get an early copy of the book from Neil’s awesome publicist in New York, Nicole Dewey and he too joined the fan club for Notes on Complexity.
I have become captivated about many of the leading authors on complexity, and was thrilled when Neil agreed to record with me, his first from within the Design world. I’ve been researching complexity for several months, and unpacking what we can take away from decades of research by leaders in the field. How can we apply this level of thinking into our day to day work as change-makers.
This conversation is one that I will look back on an cherish, but also cringe at times, as I ask some pretty naive questions. My goal here with many of the podcasts, is sometimes to ask the questions that hopefully can open up channels for many, so as you can probably tell by this stage, I’m not afraid of asking for the sake of clarity.
If you can, get your hands on this book. It’s stunning. It’s carefully created and really has opened my mind to new worlds that I am excited to continue to explore.
Justyna Turek ‘A fresh perspective:The Role of Human-Centered Design in Sustainability’
Episode 109
Thursday, May 25, 2023 • Duration 33:56
In this conversation I caught up Justyna Turek, founder of many businesses and based in Sweden. Justyna works most often with Next Agents and Change Pilots in Poland. We speak about the work that they have been focussed on for over a decade, sustainability and design. I wanted to explore how they got into it, as I know there are many people that I coach who are interested in this space, but maybe feel unsure on how to work more in this space. We all know the crisis that we face globally with global warming, so aligning to Earth Centered Design Principles is probably not a massive leap for most of us, but just how would you get started…
Zoë Rose ‘Design Through Time: Unraveling the Evolution of Methodologies and Frameworks’
Episode 108
Thursday, May 18, 2023 • Duration 42:15
In this conversation I caught up with Zoe Rose, of Great Question in Australia. We spoke about the background and history of design methods, as far back as 1950. Zoe has a wealth of information on this topic, and proves to be a really fun and enjoyable exploration back in time…
Manuel Lima ‘The New Designer: Pioneering Perspectives’
Episode 107
Tuesday, May 16, 2023 • Duration 50:27
On Manuel Lima’s website, he mentions “a celebrated voice on UX design and data visualization who has spent the past 15 years leading design teams and building cutting-edge digital experiences at companies like Google, Codecademy, Microsoft, Nokia….”. His first three books were breathtakingly beautiful. If you like data and visualisations, then you are more than likely familiar with one or all of his books.
A number of months ago, Manuel sent me an advance of his latest book, The New Designer and it instantly felt different. I could sense a sea change had occurred and in this conversation that you are about to hear, we discuss the reflective process that Manuel took in the creation of this book.
It’s an awesome book - that is perfectly timed. Many of us are questioning our roles in the creation of service that perpetuate social structures and norms. This book is not just for you, but it’s for everyone you know who is on a journey of self-discovery and purpose.
This was a lot of fun to record and hope you enjoy it!
Frank Müeller ‘Revolutionising Work Spaces with Playmobil Pro: the Ultimate Tool for Creativity and Collaboration’
Episode 106
Thursday, May 11, 2023 • Duration 38:51
In this conversation I caught up Frank Mueller, of Playmobil Pro. Frank is Managing Director of GBI Global Business Innovation in Munich. We speak the incredible kit that I recently bought for the new Makers & Doers School that I have launched, which is a design school for children aged 6-12. We speak about how Playmobil works in the professional organisational capacity to help unlock conversations and visualise complexity.
Emily Hamilton ‘Designing Second Chances: Breaking the Cycle
Episode 105
Wednesday, May 3, 2023 • Duration 35:49
In this conversation I caught up Emily Hamilton, Senior Strategic Designer at Paper Giant in Australia. We speak about a project that Emily worked on recently that was related to recidivism and working with people who recently left a Justice facility. We speak about the project in detail, the methods used and outcomes achieved. Emily’s awesome, I know you will love this conversation.
Scott Jenson ‘Part 2 of 2: Open Source Design Movement: How Designers can help change the game’
Episode 104
Thursday, April 27, 2023 • Duration 30:48
In this conversation I caught up with the second part to my conversation with Scott Jenson to explore how Designer can actively get more involved with the free and open source software movement. We speak more about why this is of such an interest to Scott, and he gives his awesome advice to others on how they can get involved.
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