Bob Sutton

d.school Alum Laura Jones Selected by BusinessWeek as one of "21 People Who Will Change Business"

I just got a note that Laura Jones, who now works for Visa on innovation initiatives, was selected by BusinessWeek as one of 21 People Who Will Change Business.   We were lucky enough to have Laura in our class on Creating Infectious Action class about two years ago, and I agree that Laura has the zest for life, smarts, and determination -- plus the leadership skills -- to change business or anything else.  That is Laura (on the left, you can see her energy) during our first day of class, developing prototypes to improve dental hygiene.  I still remember the first time met Laura, and was rather amazed to hear her say that the reason she applied to the Stanford Business School was she wanted to take d.school classes, and the great work she has done at the d.school and at the business school has apparently been noticed.  Congratulations to Laura and take this coverage as a good sign for design thinking and for the value of the perspective that the d.school offers. I look forward to hearing about the work that Laura is doing at Visa.

On noticing that you don't notice

I've been working with a long document in Microsoft Word, and having the general struggles that go with being a PC owner.  I never upgraded to Vista because I heard the horror stories, but still it seems that I spend about 10% of my work time, sometimes more, either struggling to figure out how to do things, to undo things that Word does to me that I don't want, or to wait for the endless boot or shutdown times or upgrades they install that slow the machine.  On the other hand, although I was kind of hostile to them before I got one, I keep noticing that -- except when I am typing -- that I do all sorts of things on my iPhone without noticing them, I notice that I don't notice any friction. 

I first heard this phrase from IDEO design guru Bill Moggridge who, among many other things, the author of a great book called Designing Interactions.  It is one of those phrases that applies to all sorts of things, great customer experiences where good things happen and your feel no friction, organizational practices that are seamless and painless, and even government services that seem designed to reduce the burden on you. I think of the difference between the airport at Singapore -- or even Hong Kong -- versus going through most of Kennedy or the awful Heathrow.  I think "not noticing" isn't exactly the same as delight, or perhaps is a special kind of delight you have when something or some experience does not tax your emotional or cognitive energy.

I wonder, what other products, experiences, or practices do you love because you "notice that you don't notice?"

Customer Focused Innovation Executive Program: Work With Tesla to Enhance Customer Experiences, Be Part of a NASCAR Pit Crew, and Learn About Innovation and Design Thinking From Stanford's Best Teachers

I have written before about the Customer-Focused Innovation executive program that Huggy Rao, Perry Klebhan, and I launched a few years back at Stanford -- see here and here.

 The concept behind this program is that executives learn about innovation and design thinking in two ways, by both learning "clean" academic models during cases studies, lectures, and discussion in the mornings led by the likes of Jennifer Aaker (pictured left), Robert Burgelman, Chip Heath, Jeff Pfeffer, and Charles O'Reilly, along with other of the very best classroom teachers at Stanford. 

Then, we compliment that "clean models" taught and discussed in the morning with "dirty" hands on experiences with doing innovation in the afternoon. You can see Huggy and I talking about the program here on YouTube along with videos and pictures from the program. As with last year, to get the executives doing something right away and so they can start to get to know each other, the Sunday evening the program starts, Andy (Papa) Papathanassiou who is, among other things, the pit crew director for Hendricks' motor sports, will get executives working in teams in a competition to see who can change the tires fastest (see below). 

For the afternoon exercise, in the past, we have worked with a large energy company to improve the quality of customer experience at their gas stations.  Below are executives brainstorming ways to  improve "the gas station experience" and sell customers more stuff from convenience stores.  This was from the first year of the program, and the guy in the green sweater, Jeremy Gutsche (then a banking executive), went on to start Trendhunter, which is arguably the largest and most frequently updated site in the world that tracks modern trends.

For this year's CFI, which runs November 8-13, I think we have something even more exciting, as this excerpt from the Tesla/Stanford press release indicates:

Design expert Perry Klebahn, the inventor of the modern snowshoe and an Associate Consulting Professor at the d.school, will be working closely with participants on the Tesla project during the program. Klebahn is founder and former CEO of Atlas Snowshoes, former COO of Patagonia, and former CEO of Timbuk2.

Key features of the Stanford collaboration will have program participants conducting:

• Interviews of Tesla’s key management and dealership personnel
• Observation of real car buyers at Tesla and non-Tesla dealerships
• Ideation, design, prototyping and iteration of new vehicle purchase models
• Presentation of proposed models to Tesla management

Here is what the Tesla showroom looks like now, but the company is looking for ways to enhance the design and, especially, all aspects of the "car buying experience" as they move toward rolling out lower-priced and larger electric cars that will appeal to a broader market. (those sports cars are beautiful, however)

Huggy, Perry, and I hope that some of you and your colleagues might be interested in signing-up for the program. You can see the details here, but I should warn you that this is a pretty expensive program.  Executive education is never cheap at Stanford, but to just break even and keep the group small, this program has especially steep labor costs.  We limit the program to about 30 executives, because the logistics of running the hands-on part in afternoon are intensive.  We provide a dedicated d.school coach for each team, Plus Perry and an a large d.school team do a host of things to keep things humming along.   The advantage, however, is that while most executive education just presents "clean models" (as we do in the morning sessions in a case style class at the Stanford business school) ,it rarely includes the messy hands-on process of doing stuff, visiting a real organization, talking to customers, generating ideas, building prototype objects and experiences, getting initial feedback from customers, and ending with feedback from the executives -- from Tesla in this case -- who need those ideas immediately.

Of all the executive programs I teach in at Stanford, and I like them all, this one is the most challenging, most rewarding, and most work for everyone involved. It's an experience for people who want to jump in and do things, not for people who just want to sit on the sidelines and watch.  I believe this is why the lonbg term impact is stronger than most programs.  We see this in the emails, success stories, and yes, failure stories, we still get from former participants.  So if you (and your company) has the money and time for an intense and enlightening week at Stanford, I hope you will sign-up.  I realize that many companies are cutting costs these days, but I believe that investing in innovation is especially crucial these days because, no matter what industry you are in, odds are that you aren't going to survive and thrive by just becoming a smaller and more efficient -- but otherwise perfect imitation -- of what your organization was and did  before the meltdown. Again, check-out Stanford website and see if this is right for you and your organization.

Starting a Movement, Learning to Lead: The Palo Alto Pedestrian Mall Over at Harvard Business Review

Julia Kirby wrote a great post over at the Harvard Business Review blog about the impressive progress that Amrita Mahale, James Thompson, Svetla Alexandrov, and Dave Hughes made over the past couple weeks in starting a movement and debate about whether to close the main drag in downtown Palo Alto and turn it into a pedestrian mall.  As I wrote last week, this has sparked a heated and serious debate in the community.  And a lot of press coverage.  Today, it was picked-up by Julia over at HBR, who focused on Dave Hughes (an Army Captain and Iraq veteran who is teaching at West Point next year), and what he learned about leadership from the experience. 

I have had the pleasure of teaching Dave in three different classes, and he is a delight (Also, talk about a no excuses guy -- he did make it to class when he spent the night before in the hospital, but asked to be excused on the day his wife had a baby!).  He also has wonderful leadership skills, as the article with Julia implies.  But I also want to make sure and emphasize that the other members of Team Wildfire, Amrita, James, and Svetla did a marvelous job as well -- although we also understand that Dave's experience in Iraq (he flew helicopters and coordinated hundreds of missions) definitely makes a great story.  If you are curious, check out Starting a Movement, Learning to Lead. Also, I think I learned a lot more about leadership from watching Dave in action than he ever learned from me and other Stanford faculty.  In any event, as always, anything that Julia writes is a delight to read.

The Palo Alto Pedestrian Mall Controversy

The d.school class we are teaching this term is called Creating Infectious Action, and the final project for the students is to find ways to "Kill Gas," to invent, spread, and implement ideas that reduce gasoline consumption. One of the most successful groups, staffed by Amrita Mahale, David Hughes, James Thompson, and Svetla Alexandrov -- after observing driving behavior in downtown Palo Alto, talking to merchants, customers, city officials, and a host of others -- decided that gas could be saved and the quality of life could be improved in downtown Palo Alto by closing several blocks of University Avenue (the main street in downtown). You may recall that I blogged about it last week; well, it is one thing to have an idea, and another thing to spread it ... and in the less than two weeks they have devoted to this idea, they have done an amazing job.  It seems to have turned into a project that may be debated in the City of Palo Alto for years forward.  Today, a story was published in the Palo Alto Weekly that quotes a city council person (and ex-Mayor) who comes out in support of the idea:

The idea of turning University into an auto-free promenade isn't entirely new. In July 2007, city officials decided to close the busiest section of University on a Friday afternoon only to see adjoining streets fill with traffic and merchants fill with anger and frustration.

But Councilwoman Yoriko Kishimoto, who was mayor at the time, said the biggest flaw with the event was inadequate planning and publicity. Kishimoto is a longtime proponent of creating a more walkable Palo Alto. She said the idea of turning University into a pedestrian-only zone is not without merit, provided it's implemented in gradual phases.

"I think people are very hungry for a place to just meet and mingle," Kismet said. "It creates an environment where you, by serendipity, run into neighbors and meet up and have dinner with them."

The first phase, Kishimoto said, could be to eliminate parking spots along University Avenue to allow for wider sidewalks and more bicycle parking spots. Later phases could include closing the busy stretch to cars on a monthly or a bi-weekly basis. The street, for example, could be closed to traffic late Friday afternoon and remain closed on Saturday morning, during which time it could host a farmers market, she said.

The students are getting this kind of attention with their Facebook group (join here), by recruiting people like me to spread the message, quickly getting to know -- and to start lobbying -- influential government officials and merchants, designing a cool logo (see above) and I think most impressively, by going from merchant to merchant in downtown Palo Alto and asking each to put a sticker in their window to express support for the mall. 

One of the interesting lessons from this group is that people have a very strong reaction to the idea (note this comment from a city worker on my blog about the idea "Do you have any idea what kind of debt the City of Palo Alto is in and how many people are getting laid off? While the economy is in dire need of reconstruction you want to make downtown a park? The people of this city never cease to amaze me."). A key feature of ideas that spread is that people have strong reactions -- both negative and positive to them -- and emotions they rile-up draw attention to the ideas and motivate people to fight to push the ideas through (and to stop the ideas). 

So this group, to their credit,  picked an idea that provokes hot emotion, and are doing a great job of using local leaders, Facebook, the media, logos, and the plain old fashioned method of knocking on doors to sell their ideas -- and at the very least, have briefly stirred-up a hornet's nest around it, and at the best, may some day be able to take some credit if Palo Alto implements the pedestrian mall. 

More broadly, although "teaching" in the d.school frankly sometimes drives me crazy because it is so inefficient (we have 5 faculty and another 4 coaches for this little class), many students struggle to make their projects effective, struggle with group dynamics (and sometimes teaching teams do as well), and -- as a Professor who has spent his life standing in front of a class and pretending to be in charge -- the lack of control is disconcerting at times. But when students do inspired work like this, it is all worth it, and they deserve the credit, not the faculty. And even though there comes a point every year that I swear I will never teach another d.school class again, something like this happens and I am hooked all over again.  It is an entirely different way to teach, and is scary at times, but it all seems worthwhile again when I see the look in the students faces when they have made something from nothing, and in this group, in just two weeks, has moved from a few Post-It Notes and squiggles on whiteboard to a real and red hot community debate.

P.S. I want to give special thanks to this team's fantastic coach, Katie Geminder.

P.P.S. Also, check out this page that has all kinds of information and -- straight out of the pages of Made to Stick -- concrete actions that people can take to spread the word and create pressure for the mall. 

Turning Palo Alto's University Avenue into a Pedestrian Mall?

Palo Alto, the town right next to Stanford University, has become remarkably crowded with cars over the years. The main drag,University Avenue, is filled with lovely shops and restaurants, (having dined there last night), but the experience sure would be nicer without all those cars.  There are the beginnings of a movement (launched by a student group in our Creating Infectious Action class in the Stanford d.school) too close seven or eight blocks of the street and turn it into a pedestrian mall (as so many European cities do), which would make it much more pleasant to visit and eat in the outdoor restaurants.  The students have been interviewing a host of stakeholders, merchants, customers, police officers, and city officials, and many believe that it is a viable idea -- most of the merchants are especially enthusiastic.  Their emerging dream of what it would be looks something like the above picture. You can join the Facebook group here. If you love the idea, spread it around and help build some energy.  If you think it sucks, tell them why. And if you have ideas about how to design it -- or to create a movement to make it happen -- let the students know.

Free Creating Infectious Action Conference at Stanford: Facebook, LinkedIn, Apple, Netflix, Ning, and Huggy Rao.

The d.school class on Creating Infectious Action that I teach with Perry Klebhan, Diego Rodriguez (of Metacool fame), Michael Dearing, and Joe Mellin is hosting a conference at Stanford next Thursday, April 30th from 3:15 to 6:00 on the Stanford Campus, at the Braun Auditorium in the Mudd Chemistry Building.  We have great speakers who will be talking about what it takes to spread ideas, as you can see from the poster, they are from Facebook, Linkedin, Apple, Netflix, and Ning  -- plus we Stanford's own Huggy Rao will be talking about his research on spreading social movements, drawing on his book Market Rebels.  It is free and open to the public.  But as we need to plan for drinks and such, we need an estimate of how many people will be there.  Please RSVP to Joe on Facebook here or via email at [email protected].  This is our fourth year doing this -- last year was fantastic and the room was overflowing.

P.S. The d.school is also hold another conference -- on sustainability a week later at the same time and same place.  I will do a post about that soon.

Anyshit is the new Anyway

HI! This is Team Wildfire from Bob Sutton's Creating Infectious Action class at the d.school.

Well anyshit, try using the word "anyshit" today! Use it in your facebook status, your twitter updates, and anywhere else you think it'll be seen or heard.

-Team Wildfire

Creating Infectious Action: A Class for Stanford Students and a Conference for Everyone

I've blogged quite a few times about our class Creating Infectious Action at the Stanford d.school.  We are teaching it again this Fall. The class is only for Stanford students, but, just like last year, we will have a conference that is open to the public (last year, we had well over 300 people).  So stay tuned for that announcement. Here is the announcement for Stanford students who are interested in applying for the class.  It is also on Facebook with some bells and whistles here.  The poster to the left was done by our beyond amazing course assistant, Joe Mellin, one talented guy.

Here is the Stanford stuff:

Creating Infectious Action
Spring 2009

This class will immerse Stanford masters students in the practice and theory of creating large-scale persistent behavioral changes. Student teams will complete hands-on projects coached by design process experts and evaluated by members of partner organizations and other business leaders, along with members of the teaching team. In addition, brief "thought bombs" will be presented in most classes on pertinent topics including developing ideas that stick, leading social movements, behavioral decision theory, network theory, interpersonal persuasion, examples of ideas that have spread, and seemingly unsuccessful ideas.

We invite all Stanford graduate students to apply for the class. We select students for both their individual background and skills and, especially, to round out our multi-disciplinary teams. This is a high commitment class and will require intensive teamwork.

Class Number: MS&E 288
Units: 4
Time: Th 3:15-6:05PM, Lab M 5:30-7:30PM
Limited enrollment: 24 students, graduate students only
Applications: Join the Facebook group: Shhh... CIA is coming to the d.!
Teaching Team:
Perry Klebahn, Timbuk2, d.school
Michael Dearing, d.school
Bob Sutton, Management Science & Engineering

lovethe1yourewith: Great Video and Great Message

I've already blogged about shutdownandprotect, the website our students have put-up to encourage people to turn-off their computers.  As I've said, this is part of the efforts by our Creating Infectious Engagement class to spread messages and behavior that reduces the energy consumption that stems from producing and using computers.   Another student team is taking different approach, based on the idea that the energy required to produce a new computer is enough to run an old computer for at least 10 years.  So their idea is to get people to keep their computers longer. They have put together a great website to spread ways extend the life of your computer and it features one of the funniest student movies I have ever seen; it rivals Gus Bitdinger's Back in Orbit. Check out lovethe1yourewith, and make sure to watch the movie that stars Marylin and Dan -- it is a little masterpiece. Dan also asks that I credit Jeff Keacher's deft video direction as well. 

P.S. Note that we are working with an industry group called climate savers computing on this project. The companies involved in this organization include Dell, HP, and Lenovo. I am sure they are not wild about spreading the message that it is better to hold onto your computer longer, but the students make a damn good point.

Is Fear An Effective Motivator?

I wrote earlier in the week about the efforts our students in Creating Infectious Action at the d.school are taking to spread the word about different ways to reduce the carbon footprint left by the production, distribution, and use of computers.  The students presented the current prototypes of the their projects yesterday in class, and I was taken with the range and quality of their ideas, which included a remarkably engaging and funny film meant to encourage people to upgrade the components of their older computers rather than buying a new one (it turns out that the energy it takes to produce a new computer can run a current computer for more than 10 years), a group that developed materials that third grade teachers can use to teach kids ways to reduce energy usage, another group that focused on ways to get parents and their young children to "mutually reinforce" practices that reduce consumption (like shutting down the monitor and computer, using power-saving settings), a group that is working on ways to get the most hardcore "green" types to take up the cause of power saving -- such using social networking sites and developing cool green covers for computers that say "We all need sleep," and finally, the group that I wrote about last time at www.shutdownandprotect.



This group continues to make good progress. Their site keeps looking better and better and it keeps getting more interesting content. They are running a contest right now, offering a $250 reward for the best best photos, images, and films pertinent to their challenge.  They've got a cute youtube film that they made, and other material. But I think one of the most interesting things and the site, and something we talked about in class yesterday a fair amount is the question of whether fear is an effective means for spreading messages and changing behavior.  Recall my earlier post, and their initial work, was in this vein, as they warned users of viruses and hackers that have a greater opportunity to do their dirty deeds when the computer is always on.  And I called my post "Shut the Damn Thing off or Else."  But there seemed to be arguments on both sides of question of whether fear was an effective message and motivator, with some of us arguing that it is an effective way to get attention and others arguing that it scares people away -- indeed, this is an interesting kind of mood management argument I've seen in the marketing literature, that "fear appeals" often fail because people divert attention as we are all motivated to avoid situations and messages that put us in a bad mood. Another, more fine-grained argument that came-up was, following Huggy Rao's talk at our conference, that negative, vivid, and scary messages are useful for getting people's attention (Huggy argues that people need a "hot cause" to get them focused on a problem), but action doesn't happen unless people are then directed to more rational solutions that are presented in emotionally cool ways -- which does reflect the direction that this team sees to be going.

In any event, you might want visit the new and ever improving version of .shutdownandprotect.  You can vote on and discuss whether fear, guilt, logic, and humor are the most effective ways for the team to spread their message and leave them a comment if you want.  And the movie and message are cool.

I will also try to get links to some of the other students' projects over the next week -- they have a week to go, and they could benefit from your comments and suggestion, and any help you can give them to spread their messages

Shut the Damn Thing Off Or Else! Go to shutdownandprotect.com

The project that our students in Creating Infectious Action are currently doing focuses on ways to reduce energy consumption, and thus the carbon footprint, created by the production and use of computers. We are working with a group called Climate Savers Computing, a consortium of over 150 companies.  Pretty much every major computer hardware and software firm is involved except Apple, and we are working directly with people from Google and Microsoft -- which is kind of amusing to see because, although they are competitive in many other ways, the two companies are remarkably cooperative around this issue.

Frankly, getting people to focus on how much power an idle computer is using, or to use settings that reduce power isn't easy. Our students are finding that even the most "green" and cost conscious folks often don't devote attention to this source of energy use and cost.  As such, I find the indirect path taken by a team that have named themselves "The Green Blood Project" does a clever job of approaching the problem indirectly. They argue -- and show evidence -- that leaving your computer on all the time increases the chances of getting a virus, and along the way, they provide a link to software you can download to set the power savings settings on your PC. 

I also like the name of their website www.shutdownandprotect.com.  They do a good job of following the advice given by Huggy Rao at our conference on creating infectious action: Identify an emotionally "hot' problem (viruses and hacker attacks in this case) and a "cool" or rational solution (shutting down your computer and downloading the power saving software in this case). 

Check it out and pass it along.  Also, you might contact the students directly with suggestions about ways to both craft their message and ideas about how to spread their solutions.

New d.School Executive Program: Do You Want to Learn How to Act Like a Design Thinker?

The Stanford d.school and Stanford Business School have joined together to offer a new executive program for people who want to immerse themselves in the design thinking process. This program, called Design Thinking Boot Camp: From Insights to Innovation is the next logical step after the Customer-Focused Innovation class that Huggy Rao and I teach every November, which combines traditional lectures and case studies with hands-on d.school type experience – as you can see in earlier posts here, here, and here. Bootcamp is mostly hands-on. The pictures are from the hands-on experiences that we gave executives in our Customer--Focused Innovation executive program last November -- and reflect the kinds of experiences that executives get in both programs (although Bootcamp emphasizes that "doing" part nearly 100%, and Customer-focused Innovation is roughly 50% traditional case-style discussion ("clean models" we call it) and 50% hands-on stuff ("embracing the mess of innovation" we call it).

Here is the description of the new program from Kerry O'Connor, the d.school Fellow who is leading our executive education efforts (she is pictured to the left). Sounds like a lot of fun and, I can assure you, that you will learn a lot if you sign-up.

Design Thinking Boot Camp: From Insights to Innovation offers executives the chance to learn design thinking — a human-centered, prototype-driven process for innovation that can be applied to product, service, and business design. We believe that innovation is necessary in every aspect of business, and that it can be taught. We invite you to join us at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, affectionately called "the d.school," for an experience that will enhance your ability to drive innovation in your organization.  The 3-day program will take place July 7th through the 9th, 2008.

The d.school design thinking process is user-centered and prototype-driven. As a participant in Design Thinking Boot Camp, you will be part of a small multidisciplinary team and work through a hands-on innovation challenge from start to finish. You will walk away from the workshop with a strong understanding of the key tenets of design thinking and be able to execute them at home.

Key Takeaways and Tenets of Design Thinking

• Develop Deep Consumer Insights: If you are looking for insights about your consumers that your competitors don't have, our field observations and ethnographic methods will take you beyond the limitations of      traditional market research. Our tools will help you to understand how to      tap into what is meaningful for consumers and to uncover what they need.
• Reduce Risk and Accelerate Learning Through Rapid Prototyping:      If you are responsible for launching new products and services into the marketplace, design thinking can help you to greatly reduce the risk of failure and accelerate organizational learning through an iterative process of prototyping and user testing.
• Drive Towards Innovation, Not Just Incremental Growth: Uncover and capitalize on the      unexplored innovation spaces in your business or industry.
• Empower Your Employees To Be Innovative: If you seek to unlock the creative potential of your organization, design thinking can help you to transform your organizational structure and internal processes so that your business shifts to a more innovative stance.

To learn more about the program and how to apply, look here. There is room for just 35 executives in the Boot Camp, so apply early to enhance your chance of being admitted. 

 

Treating the Organization as a Prototype: BusinessWeek Story on a d.School Class

When Jeff Pfeffer and I wrote Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management, one of the main themes we emphasized was that the best leaders have an attitude of wisdom. This means that leaders have the courage and confidence to act on what they know right now, and the humility and cognitive flexibility to doubt what the know.  That way, when new information comes along, they can change direction.  You can also read about this perspective in articles that we did related to the book here and here. I've written about variations of this perspective a lot on this blog too, notably in this post on strong opinions weakly held and in this one on Andy Grove.

Jeff and I also make the related point that another way to think about the attitude of wisdom is that it means treating organizational practices and structures as prototypes: Rather than doing endless planning and arguing about what will work, it is often wiser to take your best guess at the problem based on what you know now, then do a series of relatively quick and cheap prototypes, and iterate your way to a better solution. Now, the iteration cycle for organizational changes varies pretty wildly; a good example of one that has gone on for years is Cisco's merger integration process, where they have continuously improved the process over the years -- but even in that case, the mergers (until recently) have been relatively quick and easy as they have focused on small companies that are close to headquarters.   But there are some processes that can be iterated much more quickly... at least that has been our theory. 

In essence, this is applying design thinking to organizational practices. And while Jeff and I have been talking about it for years, and we have a lot of examples from other places that reflect this mindset, this last term I finally got to be involved in a d.school class where we found some companies that let our students mess with their organizational practices.  Debra Dunn (among other things, a 22 year HP veteran who held many senior jobs at HP including General Manager of a large division and SVP of Strategy), Kris Woyzbun (veteran of six d.school classes and now at IDEO), Kerry O'Connor (a d.school Fellow heading up our executive education efforts and a splendid design thinker) and I taught a class last term called Business Process Innovation: Treating the Organization as an Unfinished Prototype.  We had only 14 students in the class -- and boy, did they get a lot done.  They came-up with and tested (in a d.school class, you can't just recommend things, you have to test them in the real world) ideas to improve the customer experience at a major airline that are being implemented and also came-up with ideas to improve the new employee onboarding process in another firm that are scheduled to be implemented. 

Perhaps the most dramatic project, however, was the shortest (and it is a company I can name too) -- a project aimed at fixing Timbuk2's company wide meeting. BusinessWeek's Jessie Scanlon just came out with a pair of detailed stories about it, one that focuses on what our students did at Timbuk2 and the other on 8 ways that you can improve your company meeting.   Check out the story, as it is pretty detailed and accurate -- yes the meeting was that messed-up and yes all signs are that in just a few weeks it was made dramatically better by changing a bunch of simple things.   But I do think that there some important lessons I take away from this:

1.  It is rare that a management team will so openly admit that something is messed-up.  I think this is testimony to CEO Perry Klebahn and his head of HR Andrea Yelle; they were completely blunt with us, and then with BusinessWeek about how messed-up it was.  Now, in their defense, they had spent the prior year simply trying to keep the company alive and were making massive changes in personnel in the process. BUT the lesson is that deep dissatisfaction helps provide an impetus for organizational change.  We took a 45 minute bus ride from Stanford to Timbuk2 with the students, and when we were traveling back, some students were discouraged by how bad the meeting was -- Debra, Kris Woyzbun, and I had the opposite reaction, as our view was that there was so much motivation for change and so many simple things to fix.

2. Perry -- a world class product designer, who among other things, invented the modern snowshoe and was COO of Patagonia -- later admitted that he really didn't think that the design process could be applied to organizational problems. But, Perry being Perry, decided to see if it would work anyway (How is that for strong opinions weakly held?).  And now I am getting one email after another from Perry asking about other ways the process might be applied in his company.

3.  The students did something absolutely brilliant when the senior people from Timbuk2 visited our class.  They didn't just present their suggestions in a Powerpoint, they had all of us "live" both the current "bad" company meeting (standing-up, little structure, little personalization or celebration) and then they switched gears and had us all live the "good" meeting they imagined.  We all immediately recognized the power of simple things and because -- rather than just talking about making the change -- the Timbuk2 folks were already rehearsing and "feeling" the changes within in minutes of their arrival, they were acquiring much more actionable knowledge than the passive experience of reading a Powerpoint and talking about what they would do next (although we did some of that after living the meeting).

4.  I've been an academic researcher for years and believe in rigorous data -- both qualitative and quantitative -- of all kinds.  But these students showed that, at least for some problems, rather than digging in for months and months and thinking and thinking -- that some problems do have simple causes and simple solutions.

5. This is also a great argument for the power of small wins, for focusing on things that are small enough to fix rather than being overwhelmed by such a big problem that it seems impossible to fix.   

6. Company meetings -- as well as smaller meetings such a brainstorms and problem-solving meetings -- are likely especially amenable to this kind of prototyping because everything is on "public display." But meetings also strike me as an unusually powerful point of intervention because everyone sees how everyone else is acting, and it is a place where changes are communicated through everyone by actions, not just words, and where any distance between talk and action is obvious to everyone involved.  My hypothesis is that changing behavior in meetings can also change behavior in other kinds of interactions because they are so vivid and shared by all.  Debra Dunn has her sights set elsewhere for our next class -- she argues that performance evaluation conversations are especially broken in most places, and that is something we should have the class do next year -- which would mean finding a company that lets students sit in on real evaluations and then getting them to change and iterate on how the evaluations are done.  This could be tough, but my experience is that  these conversations are so broken in most companies, that they are ripe for change.

Debra and I are already thinking of how we are going to teach this class next year.  So we would appreciate any suggests, possible concerns, and the like you might have about our approach and the kinds of problems we should tackle.
 

Location Change: d.school Conference Now at Hewlett 201 on the Stanford Campus

We have had a lot of people sign-up for our conference on Creating Infectious Action so we are moving to a bigger room. It is Hewlett 201. Here is the link to the location.  The event still goes from 3:30 to 6 with a reception to follow.

Creating Infectious Action Conference: Update

The conference that our Creating Infectious Action class is putting on this Thursday between 3:30 and 6 at Stanford has generated a lot of interest -- recall that I blogged about it last week.  We have about 150 people signed-up.  We are delighted with the interest, but as it will put strain on our d.school space, we will be moving the venue to a nearby building.  Please stay-tuned if you have signed-up and we will be sending out updates about where the new location on the Stanford campus will be (Also note this means that the location on the poster here is is wrong -- but I thought you would like to see who is speaking and I do love the design).   If you are still interested in signing-up, we will have room for more as we are moving to the new location.  Please RSVP at this gmail account:

[email protected]

Or if you are on Facebook, you can RSVP here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=26210954352

Thanks and stay-tuned for information on the new venue.

Mini-Conference on Creating Infectious Action at the d.School: Please Join Us on May 1st

Our Stanford d.school class on Creating Infectious Engagement is holding a conference next Thursday May 1st from 3:30 to 6:00 that is open to the public.  We have some great speakers lined-up who will talk about what it takes to spread good ideas. Please RSVP to Joe Mellin at [email protected] if you will be joining us, as we need to plan for food.  The conference is at Hewlett  201 on the Stanford Campus. NOTE THE CHANGE OF LOCATION. A big thanks to Joe for designing this wonderful poster.  Please send it along to your friends!

Finger Blaster Fight at Timbuk2

The d.school class on Business Practice Innovation that Debra Dunn, Kerri O'Connor, Kris Woyzbun and I taught last term focused on treating organizational practices as prototypes. I wrote a bit here about the class and how it would be different from a traditional class. Our first project focused on improving the customer experience at a major airline, the second on improving the company-wide meeting at Timbuk2, and the third on improving the "on boarding" process from employees at a professional service firm.

The shortest project -- yet the one that had the most visible and immediate effects -- happened at Timbuk2.  The students observed the company wide meeting, talked to employees about their views of it, invited the top executives to a class meeting at Stanford where -- most brilliantly I thought -- they started by running our class meeting in a way that was sort of a parody of the Timbuk2 meeting (e.g., there was no place to sit, it was unclear who was playing what role in the meeting, newcomers weren't introduced, and there was no food) and then they had the folks on the top team "experience" the suggested new meeting, with people sitting down, with roles and schedule clear, with newcomers introduced, a lot of talk about products and customer experiences, and some good food.  The Timbuk2 folks took these ideas back immediately and redesigned the next meeting to incorporate many of the student's suggestions, and  a group of employees reported to the students that the new meeting was much better.  You should be hearing more about this adventure on this blog, as there is some media interest, and I will let you know if and when the stories appear.

I've written about Timbuk2 here before -- about some wild new products ideas such as the Steve Sleeve and the bags produced with their prototype Lamitorn machine for melting grocery plastic bags and turning them into material for  Timbuk2 products.  I have also written about how much I admire Perry Klebhan, the CEO.  We especially want to thank Perry and the other members of the executive team for letting our students visit and mess around with their company.

Perry sent me an email this morning suggesting that better meetings spillover in other ways too.  Check-out this Finger Blaster fight at Timbuk2 that was posted on YouTube yesterday. It is short and funny.

P.S. If you want your own Finger Blasters,  you can buy them here. Note that they were invented by Brendan Boyle at IDEO -- here is a cool little film where Brendan talks about how he runs his design group.

Calling All Stanford Graduate Students: Check Out Our Class on Creating Infectious Engagement

If you are a Stanford graduate student and interested in taking a d.school class that is at the intersection of design thinking and business problems, please consider applying for our class on Creating Infectious Engagement.  Here is the description:

Management Science & Engineering 288 (NEW AND IMPROVED)

Creating Infectious Engagement

Teaching Team: Debra Dunn, Kerry O'Connor, and Bob Sutton

With Special Appearances by d.school Stars: Diego Rodriguez and Perry Klebahn

Projects: 

Work with people at Facebook to spread usage beyond the core demographic

Work with people at Google, Microsoft, the World Wildlife Fund, and other organizations, on the Climate Savers Computing project to reduce the energy consumed by computers

Time: Monday, 5:00 - 6:30pm; Thursday 3:15 - 6:15pm

NOTE: The deadline for application this class is extended until March 15^th because we have substituted the Climate Savers project for the Fidelity project (due to a rather wild and unexpected turn of events). We love the new project and hope that Stanford students will too. If you have already applied to the class, there is no need to do so again.

DESCRIPTION: This class will immerse Stanford masters students in the practice and theory of spreading ideas that result in persistent behavioral changes.  Student teams will complete hands-on projects with Facebook and the Climate Savers Computing project (an organization that brings together organizations including Google, Microsoft, Lenovo, Dell, HP, Intel, the World Wildlife Fund, and many others, to change how computers are designed and used to reduce energy consumption).  These projects will be guided, coached, and evaluated by members of these organizations and other business leaders, along with members of the teaching team.  In addition, brief "thought bombs" will presented in most classes on pertinent topics including developing ideas that stick, leading social movements, behavioral decision theory, network theory, interpersonal persuasion, examples of ideas that have spread (e.g., the Institute for Health Improvement’s efforts to save 100,000 lives in U.S. hospitals) and seemingly unsuccessful ideas (e.g., The Segway). The class will also host an open conference on creating infectious engagement on May 1^st, 2008 that will address related topics.  If you are interested in learning more about the work done in past versions of this class and related classes that address the intersection between design thinking and business,  check out this story in the Stanford Daily, this story in InformationWeek, and postings here and here at Metacool and here at Work Matters.

We invite all Stanford graduate students to apply for the class. We select students for both their individual background and skills and, especially, to round out our multi-disciplinary teams.  This is a high commitment class and will require intensive teamwork.  If you are interested in applying to the class, please send a resume and statement to [email protected] (no more than 500 words) about why you are interested in taking the class and will be a constructive part of it.  Additionally, please list your experiences, if any, with d.school classes.  Applications are due March 15 and admissions to the class will be announced on March 19.    Also, if you have any questions, please write Debra, Kerry, or Bob.

Perry Klebahn’s Insights from the NASCAR Exercise

 

Perry responded to my last post with the comment below, which I thought was worthy of “raising” to a post as all of us at the d.school see Perry as one of the best at turning design thinking into action. He has done it in the “real world” at Atlas Snowshoes (which he founded), Patagonia (where he was COO), and now Timbuk2 (where he is CEO). And Perry has taught and coached dozens of design classes in the Stanford Product Design Program and the d.school. Here is what Perry observed:

“Having taught at the d.school with Bob in the past, and having been through a few kick off sessions for these kinds of sessions. I found this exercise was very successful in two dimensions:

1. A hands on experience in design thinking - the exercise drove home a few points very clearly -' speed wins, 'teams that iterated the most did the best, 'thinking through doing' the second the teams got their hands dirty they sorted it out (trust me, many teams tried to talk it through first), and finally this exercise taught that teams that failed early did better (teams that made the most mistakes at the start had the fastest times at the end)

2. This exercise was a terrific one at forming a design team. No one was an expert, no one can look good moving a 65 lbs tire around, and there was no room for a manager (by design teams were small) - it was a hands on effort. The teams were forced to work with no status, and a shared leadership model. It was terrific in this respect as a teaching exercise, but in principle applies to management training as well.

I also must compliment Andy and his team as they brought a lot of energy to this and at the close of the exercise demo'd a NASCAR pit crew tire change (they were quite a bit faster then any of us could imagine was possible).”

I especially like Perry’s comment that “there was no room for a manager.” That reminds me of Perry so much because, even when he is in a management position, he always is doing work – moving stuff around, throwing away garbage, and especially keeping an eye out for the person or team that is having the most trouble at the moment and jumping into lend a hand. I live in a world – academics – where we talk and talk and talk and the idea of actually doing something can seem strange to us– working with Perry is always a breath of fresh air because his first reaction when he notices that something is wrong is to stand up and fix it himself!

P.S. As one more sign of Perry’s action orientation, here is a recent INC Magazine story about the team building exercise that Perry did with his Timbuk2 team called Into the Wild. The above picture is Perry and his team hiking along.

 

P.P.S. The Timbuk2 bag above is made from all recycled material. Check out this Wired story about it– former d.school student and now entrepreneur Brian Witlin invented the lamitron , a gizmo that melts plastic bags and turns them into usable material.