Participatory Design

A High-Involvement Process for Organisational Design

We approach the work of designing, or redesigning and organisation in stages. In this way any stage can be designed to maximise the scope for involvement. We have experience of doing design work in groups ranging from 10 to 20 people right up to as large as 200.

The basic process is

1. A preliminary assessment - through a range of interviews and group diagnostics sessions. These can be externally facilitated or you can have people form the organisation plan and facilitate a great deal of this work.
2. Senior team session - to review the preliminary assessment and develop Design criteria, which will be used to shape the design.
3. Involvement process developed with senior team to agree what skills, knowledge and aptitude are needed for the rest of the design sessions and how this will support effective transition.
4. Structural Alternatives session to develop options for the overall structure of the design
5. Linking mechanisms session to map out the appropriate links for each of the designs
6. Impact analysis session to review the design and identify any other core process needs
7. Transition sessions to map out detailed team plans
8. Core processes session to agree how these will work in the new structure.