Design Thinking is no democracy

This sounds like a paradox: There’s a working method that lives the most important basic values of a democracy. But it only works when the game is played by your rules.

Another hold-your-breath moment. Why the hell should one of the most collaborative, interactive, and non-hierarchical methods in the world not be democratic? The team is fully empowered, and for this reason some do not even document the results. There are no hierarchies and each individual idea is equally considered. Seems pretty democratic, doesn’t it? And, to put you at ease, for the most part it is. Like in Orwell’s Animal Farm, “All animals are equal…

…but some animals are more equal than others”. And guess who? It is the facilitator. Okay, you can say the facilitator is always special because they conduct the workshop. But for me there is more to that role. As I mentioned in my article “Design Thinking is a design discipline”, it is my deeply held belief that it is not enough to just facilitate. As a good moderator you take full responsibility for the SUCCESS of the workshop. It is your mission to ensure that the outcome is an extraordinary solution that participants are proud to share.

If you are willing to accept this challenge, this is where democracy comes to an end.

Dont’ be a nice guy

In the early years, when I started to run Design Thinking workshops, I tried to make everything possible for the client. We do not have a proper workshop location (“sorry, but I am lucky if I get any room at all!”)? No problem, let’s do it in normal meeting rooms! We have four additional participants who want to join at short notice (“we have to invite them, for political reasons …”). Okay, bring them along! Someone needs some workshop time to share his own message with the group (“it’s a rare chance to tell them the new strategy. Just 10 minutes and 6 slides”). Okay we weave it into the agenda! I convinced myself that the method itself is so powerful and that with me as a designer with my superhero communication skills, this will be enough to overcome the obstacles.
What an epic fail!

On several occasions, teams left frustrated with a poor outcome. It really got me down. I did everything to meet the client’s expectations, but it ended up being a mess. Finally, I realized that well-meant is not well done. No one will thank you for being the nice guy if the results suck. You have to take the responsibility and do EVERYTHING that is necessary to make the workshop a successful experience. YOU have to guarantee the right setup and make the group play by the rules. Because you are the only one who knows that the whole thing will otherwise turn pear-shaped.

You have to rule!

Once I realized this, I changed the game. For the next workshop preparation, I stuck to my guns: We need a Design Thinking space. No listeners in the workshop — just contributors. No high jacking the agenda. Same for the workshop day. I always stayed in the driver seat. Cut off non beneficial side-talks. Made strategic or political takes transparent and visible. I stayed on topic and pushed the group to keep the focus on the challenge. And guess what? It paid off. The team appreciated it and was much more comfortable with the strict “play by the rules” style of the workshop. Even more interesting: at no point in time did any participant feel suppressed or hard done-by. They accepted me as a natural leader and trusted me to steer the boat to the safe harbour. By the end of the day, they left with great results to show and a smile on their faces.

It pays off

In a nutshell: consistently applying these rules when organising and conducting a workshop does not make you a dictator. The opposite is true. In my opinion, it is the only way to create an environment where the democratic parts of Design Thinking can unfold and reveal their full potential. The secret is: do this with deep empathy and don’t misuse your role to push the team into a specific direction. Like a good referee, just setup the pitch, look that they play by the rules and then let them unleash their creative power. You will be rewarded with happy people and great results.

And this is what it’s all about.

This article is part of a series under the title “10 out of 100 — Learnings I wish I had known years before”. Get an overview here.