Leading teams to good solutions
Sometimes a problem is so complicated, the collective wisdom of the team needs to be corralled to see it through. Since 2014, I’ve been leading teams in design thinking workshops, getting the team comfortable in a strange space, leading them to define their problem, thinking through the user's point of view and then finally developing solutions and creating an implementation plan.
People leave my workshops feeling inspired, empowered, and with clear direction to move their objectives forward. This isn't your average brainstorming session.
User centered design workshop, February 2016
In February 2016, I helped the leadership team at a growing non-profit in Houston to determine whom they should invite to join the Board of Directors through a workshop.
After a conversation with several team members, it became clear that the organization would have trouble identifying a leadership team because they needed to answer several critical questions first.
1) What type of a community were they trying to build? As a brand new organization, they didn’t know whom they wanted to attract to grow.
2) What did they need to accomplish to build that community? They needed to identify the gaps between their ideal state and current state and determine how to close the gaps.
3) What was the role of the Board? Community roles and Board of Directors roles were easily conflated, especially when everyone wanted to pitch in. What skills were specifically needed for the Board of Directors?
4) Who should serve on the next Board?
The workshop led the team to the conclusion that they should focus on the first three questions first. Following the workshop, this team elected to pursue a new model for their Board of Directors that involved the community directly in events and programming.