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The Electronic Discussion on
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Participative Design
From the Electronic Discussion on Group
Facilitation
www.albany.edu/cpr/gf/
In the
last several years, organizations and consultants have shown
increasing
interest in accelerating the process for redesigning
organizations
and implementing change. One of the
approaches to
accelerated
redesign is Participative Design. But,
the term
participative
design is not well understood. This
paper will clarify
the
participative design process.
Participative
design is commonly associated with a short (usually 2 days)
workshop
in which representatives of the target workgroup analyze their
work
system and redesign it. The design of
the workshop (developed and
advocated
by Fred and Merrelyn Emery) consists of three main components.
First,
participants analyze their current work systems according to six
criteria.
Second,
the participants analyze their workflow and design their workunit
according
to Design Principle 2". Design
principle 2 is characterized by
the
democratic, self-governing organizational model, in which there is
multi-skilling,
responsibility for control and coordination within the
workgroup
itself, payment for skills (both social and technical), and
joint
responsibility for goal attainment.
Third,
participants prescribe other actions needed to support their new
work
system. The activities in this section
include: establishing
measurable
goals and objectives for the work group, identifying
training
requirements and immediate action steps, establishing career
paths
or skill blocks for developing the necessary skills, and
explaining
how their design will improve the scores on the six criteria
used to
initially analyze the work system.
But,
participative design is actually a much broader process for
redesigning
organizations. The participative design
process consists of
many of
the steps of a traditional socio-technical systems change process.
It
includes a set of activities for preparing the organization for change.
The
process requires work with senior management to clarify management
and
organizational values and defining the benefits of a more
participative,
self-managing work organization. The
participative design
workshop
itself
is
premised on the belief that management has made a clear decision to
operate
under design principle 2. The process
typically includes visioning
activities,
strategy clarification and the establishment of business
objectives.
Search
conference methods are often used in the participative
design
process to establish the values, strategies, and objectives.
There
are many other fundamental activities that precede the participative
design
workshop. These include developing a
job protection statement,
working
with any union(s) to establish joint ownership of the participative
design
process, establishing a budget, obtaining resource to support the
process,
creating support structures (Steering Groups, resource groups,
etc.),
and creating the overall design of the process. The resources
supporting
the
process receive training in participative design.
Participative
design is a unique organization change process. The
resources
supporting the process must understand the process as well as
their
role in supporting the process.
The
participative design process also includes preparing the leadership
for a
new function in the organization. New
roles for managers and supervisors
in a
design principle 2 environment are explored.
Often specific interventions
are
designed for supervisors. These
interventions explore other value-added
work
that supervisors and managers may perform.
They provide managers and
supervisors
with a sense of security and the challenge of working on more
strategic
problems.
The
education and awareness activities that occur in many traditional
socio-technical
systems redesignefforts are also relevant and valuable in
the participative
design process. Site visits and
readings are valuable to
helping
future workshop participants understand different organizational
models
that are possible and successful.
Attendance at work innovation
conferences
further supports these learnings. Need
for change workshops
help unfreeze
the organization and explore innovative work designs.
The
participative design process includes a series of activities which
occur
after the participative design workshop itself. Employees who did
not attend
the workshop must receive information on the new design. If
multiple
design workshops are conducted, a process for integrating the
different
designs must occur. Final designs must
be agreed to and
implemented. New roles and work processes must be more
fully defined.
Employees
must brief people outside the workgroup, defining new points of
contacts
and explaining new operating requirements or procedures.
A
critical focus in implementation is the development and delivery of
training
in the critical skills identified by the workshop participants.
Processes
need to be created to enable efficient, timely delivery of this
training. Additionally, new compensation systems,
required to support
the
transition to multi-skilling, must be developed and implemented.
Skill
blocks must be developed, certification processes created, and roles
for
stewarding the new pay-for-skills systems established .
The
initial (Stage 1) participative design workshop focuses on the design
of the
work group itself. Significant boundary redefinition and major
changes
in functional roles and responsibilities (e.g., the restructuring
from a
functional organization to a cross-functional product aligned
organization)
are considered at a later time by a deep slice of the
organization
(Stage
2). During the participative design workshop participants identify
suggestions
for changing boundaries and changes outside their workgroups,
but
these suggestions are outside the boundary
of the Stage 1 workshop. The
resource
groups and the Steering Group must acknowledge these suggestions
and
ensure that they are considered during Stage 2.
During
the Stage 2 phase of the participative design process, a deep slice
of the
organization considers changes to the existing work group structure.
These
are significant changes that cut across the organization and have
more
profound impacts. A participative
design workshop and process is
conducted
to develop the higher level design.
Subsequent participative
design
workshops for individual work groups my then follow.
Participative
design is truly an iterative, on-going design process.
The
initial workshop provides workers with a methodology and a structure
for
analyzing their work system and designing a more effective work group.
But as
markets change, customers and competitors change, and as technology
changes,
work groups must continue to adapt. The
participative design
process
provides workers with a process for continually assessing their
structures
and adapting to changes.
In
summary, the design process is more broader than the participative
design
workshop itself. It consists of a
series of change and
implementation
actions that must skillfully be managed.