How’s things? Here’s a blast from the past to ease into the week. Throwback Tuesday.
Reminiscing about SydDT #15 in 2017 when we co-designed a song from scratch with a three-piece band and the audience in the middle of the ThoughtWorks office.
As we count down to 10,000 Sydney Design Thinking members (we’re at 9,986) and prepare to celebrate our 10th birthday at our June meetup… I’ve been reflecting on the past decade.
SydDT is a very open and interactive community. We’re willing to experiment and take risks. Thanks to everyone who’s part of the community… and who was part of this session.
The Story
To co-design the song, we had Steve Mulligan (vocals & lead guitar /facilitator), Jason Davey (drums), Ben Nicholls (bass guitar), and the SydDT #15 audience led by Steve (lyrics).
Before this session our three players had never played together. All three are my mates – and several years before, I’d hired Steve and JD as part of my team – but neither of them had met Ben Nicholls before.
Steve gave a shout out a few minutes before we kicked off saying he’d brought his bass if anyone was up for playing. Ben jumped in.
Things kicked off with Steve using the double diamond to talk about the design process and to set the scene and guide the process.
He then led a discussion asking what was on everyone’s mind and how we were feeling. The band then jammed to create the sound that went each of the moods.
We had a vote to decide the mood to continue with. Leandro in the audience was just about to become a father for the first time and the theme of New Life won out over rebellion and party time.
Some more jamming to iterate the sound and then the iterative process of writing the lyrics. The audience contributed ideas and lyrics and the chorus and verses gradually emerged.
After a couple of hours of this collaborative co-design process and reflecting on how it was possible, Steve, JD, and Ben played a demo of Smiling in Your Sleep – a complete three-minute song.
It was a fun creative process and a unique experience.
One of the things I loved about this was we got to experience and participate in a design journey (and artistic expression) that often takes years – in a couple of hours.
I’ve worked with Steve, JD, and Ben on digital products in a banking context that literally took multiple years before they went live.
This experience compressed that into a short and tangible two hours. From the excited optimism at the start, the new relationships and dynamics, into the messy middle where you’re not sure how (or if) this will resolve… through to version one of a completed product.
A product that has brought together many people to collaborate. A product everyone knows is imperfect and needs more work… but a massive achievement to celebrate.
This is what design and innovation looks like in action.
“It’s impossible to innovate if it has to work. Innovation must always be accompanied by the phrase ‘this might not work.’”
Seth Godin
A huge thanks to Steve Mulligan, Jason Davey, and Ben Nicholls for guiding us through this experience – and taking the creative risk.
Check out my full post for photos and the video of the 3-minute demo and the full two hours making of.
How do you innovate?
Ideas
An offer and some events for you…
Happy World Book Day!
23 April was World Book Day. Want a free copy of my bestselling book Solve Problems That Matter?
You might know I’ve been doing some leadership research over the past few months. A huge thanks to the 150+ people who’ve already shared their perspectives, experiences, and insights.
I’ll keep the survey open for a few more days – then it’s time to synthesise what I’ve heard.
I’d love to hear your thoughts if you haven’t already done the survey. I’ll present the findings from my research in a report. It might even evolve into my next book…
To say thanks for taking the time to share your perspectives, experiences, and insights, you’ll get a free digital copy of my book Solve Problems That Matter when you complete the survey.
Design Connection #5: Modern Service Design Fundamentals with Cornelius Rachieru
Design Connection (SydDT, CCX & EUX) is excited to be bringing Cornelius Rachieru to Australia from Canada. He’ll be delivering his full-day Modern Service Design Fundamentals workshop on:
- Monday, 12 May 9am-5:30pm in Sydney
- Wednesday, 14 May 9am-5:30pm in Sydney(sold out)
- Monday, 19 May 9am-5pm in Brisbanewith our friends from IxDA Byron Bay & IxDA Brisbane
We’ve also got SydDT #113/Design Connection #5: Let’s Get Social Design Megameetup on Thursday, 15 May at 5:30pm in Sydney. Details and tickets here.
Let’s Collaborate
At Dynamic4, we specialise in regenerative leadership, design, and innovation with a focus on purpose and wellbeing. We do that by working alongside leaders and their teams to navigate complexity and solve problems that matter.
We love helping our clients design, build, and launch ideas that customers and teams love, make money, and do great things for people and our planet while increasing wellbeing. My book Solve Problems That Matter is a good way to get started.
This draws on my 30+ years of bringing together strategy, design, and tech to lead, design, and deliver strategic change in financial services, digital & tech, health & fitness, and building startups/social enterprises.
What do we actually do? Key ways we help is through coaching and advice, workshops, innovation sprints, and designing and delivering leadership, design thinking & innovation programs.
Our approach builds personal, team, and organisational capability to solve problems that matter with more:
🌿 Confidence to navigate complexity and solve problems that matter for your teams, customers, shareholders – and build momentum with more certainty and less risk while increasing your wellbeing
❤️ Clarity to empathically engage your stakeholders, make better decisions, and collaborate to create solutions that your teams and customers love, make money, and do great things for people and our planet
🎯 Purpose that drives progress on your goals and creates meaningful value that you’re proud of for all stakeholders – and build the relationships, workflows, rhythms, and habits for success
Keen to chat about how we can have fun collaborating to solve problems that matter? Book a free 15-minute discovery call.
Have fun!
Ben
