My First 3 Months at Inquisition

Hi I’m Steve, a fairly recent intern at Inquisition. Being an intern means having to prove yourself as much as possible within your given period of time, and this usually takes away from the immediate exposure to an organisation’s direction, but I can safely say that I have experienced something different. I have come to note that what Inquisition does is like a welcoming breeze when you first land in a new country after a long trip. It’s distinct; so distinct that you can’t but recognise it’s existence.

Well to cut straight to it, Inquisition is an Employee Experience Design firm, designing ways for teams to do the best work of their lives. Inquisition works with you to solve complex problems and inspire innovation through deep inquiry, empowering teams with the thinking and skills they need to creatively tackle challenges of the 21st century… and thrive.

This is what I’ve come to learn about how Inquisition works with teams to achieve:

Adaptability

Inquisition believes in building high performing and adaptable teams by working with them and introducing new structures and ways of working, allowing them to realise their true potential.

Innovation

By applying an innovative mindset to a team’s design processes, Inquisition ensures that learning and transformation is infused into the organisations culture.

Growth

Inquisition promotes organisational growth, because your organisation’s growth is what allows continued investment into research and development.

It is without doubt that Inquisition believes in cultivating a culture of curiosity, experimentation and learning. Working with teams to help them learn not only to develop and improve their products but also to fundamentally change the way they think and work.

The belief that everyone has the potential to think creatively and bring about positive change, is one reason why Design thinking methods are highly valued and promoted by Inquisition. This brings about the passion for enabling happy and productive teams because when teams are happy, they are productive and this then reflects on clients and the business as a whole.

I remember the very first workshop that I attended the very first week that I started working for Inquisition. It was for an all female startup that had requested us to do a Purpose Definition Workshop with them, in spite of the fact that they had a very explicit purpose statement on paper already.

The reason they wanted this particular workshop done for them was because they were a fairly new team that had almost zero alignment, and no one on the team had internalised the “why” of the company that they joined. They were looking for team cohesion and a shared narrative.

With the lead of palesa sibeko, Inquisition then put together a workshop tailored to their specifications, all based on Inquisition’s Purpose Definition Workshop model. Their workshop included the following activities:

Personal Business Model Canvas

In this exercise, each participant was required to reflect on how they viewed their personal contribution to the organisation. This helped form a solid base from which we worked in the following activities.

Crafting a Purpose Statement

As a team, they were required to create a Purpose Statement that resonated with everyone in the organisation. They would be defining their ‘true north’ that could be expressed in a single or few sentences.

Creating Empathy

Through this quick exercise, they explored through simulation how their Purpose would be understood on a human level with stakeholders.

Quite a few sticky notes later we had guided them to a purpose definition that they unitedly agreed resonated with them. My perspective on one’s purpose was also altered dramatically. I now believe that when you create a personal purpose statement, you clearly reveal who you are, what you want to do, and why you want to do it. It simplifies your direction and the ability to achieve your goals.

That being said, I have come to take on some very interesting tasks since I started at Inquisition, one of which is podcasting, Having a background in audio production, I was under the impression that editing a podcast would be easy pickings so to say, but boy was I wrong. We were tasked by one of our clients to produce a 5 part series for their company and like any confident individual I took it head strong, but trust me it wasn’t easy.

My first podcast came with great challenges, for example moving away from what I thought was good for me to moving towards what was good for the client. The second edit went by a little smoother than the first, it was on my third episode that I got it right and found that I quite enjoyed making podcasts, that very feeling is what has led me to exploring podcasting even more, trying to build a brand of my own and which will hopefully become a product that will benefit organisations on a global scale.

So what does Inquisition do? Inquisition believes in accelerating organisational growth, enabling self-sustainability and empowering you with the skills to adapt in changing times.

If you believe your organisation could benefit from Inquisition’s methodology, get in touch! We would love to work with you in designing strategies and experiences to suit your organisation’s exact needs and wants.