IDEO is an international design and consulting firm founded in Palo Alto, California in 1991. It is known for designing high tech medical equipment, computer mouse, ski goggles and computer screens amongst others. The firm uses design thinking methodology that is why its involvement is increasing in management consulting and organizational design. The video is about a challenge given to the IDEO team to redesign shopping cart within five days. It demonstrates how leadership, teamwork and innovation goes hand on hand in an organization.
Designing a shopping cart was something the company had not done earlier but the leader was confident that they can do it within the stipulated time frame. This shows how they are willing to take risks and try out new ideas incorporating the challenge the process concept given by Kouzes and Posner. Here the manager is not the leader, but the one who is good with working in team is leading. It believes completing a task is more about the team than the leader. The manager is sharing the vision with the entire team so that everyone in the team knows what they are doing and why. The practice of inspiring a shared vision can be found here. The belief that it is not the leader who has best ideas and the enlightened trial and error method succeeds over the planning of the lone genius shows that they enable others to act by making the team members feel valued.
The task of redesigning the shopping cart in five days was completed because of the active participation of everyone in the team. The team members were not product experts but they were experts in the process of design. The diversity of the team members allows different perspectives to the design challenge. The team members did not have any title and permanent job assignments that motivated them to take charge of their own work. The decision of the team to split up into groups and speak with the product experts to facilitate quick learning depicts their commitment to the work. There was a lot of brainstorming, discussion, demonstration, active listening and communication that facilitates the team work.
The team identified the problems with existing shopping carts and came up with the concepts to be incorporated in redesigning it that includes child safety, modularity while shopping, easy handling and facilitated checkout that provides the base of innovation. The no hierarchy system in the organization promotes innovative culture. The company’s practice of one conversation at a time, encouraging wild ideas, differing judgement and buliding on ideas of others provide basis for the innovation. The open-mindedness, demand of new ideas and belief that chaos can be constructive are the recipe of the organization for innovation that has been clearly depicted in the video.
Though this video is more about the success of IDEO because of leadership, teamwork and innovation, there are potential areas where these could fail. The consulting approach it follows is very time consuming and sometimes may cause delay in the execution due to long hours invested in planning. The deadline provides time constraint that may result in compromising of the design and innovation of the team. The idea of putting down everyone’s idea in the board for discussion is commendable but the members whose ideas are rejected or not discussed properly may feel demotivated to work. It is not always true that people from diverse background will form effective team as shown in the video because we have ample examples of team not performing well due to inability to reach to a consensus because of team members from varied background. The informal relationship between the team members may sometimes lead to unprofessional behaviors at work place.
References
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: A Wiley Brand.
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IDEO is an international design and consulting firm founded in Palo Alto, California in 1991. It is known for designing high tech medical equipment, computer mouse, ski goggles and computer screens amongst others. The firm uses design thinking methodology that is why its involvement is increasing in management consulting and organizational design. The video is about a challenge given to the IDEO team to redesign shopping cart within five days. It demonstrates how leadership, teamwork and innovation goes hand on hand in an organization.
Designing a shopping cart was something the company had not done earlier but the leader was confident that they can do it within the stipulated time frame. This shows how they are willing to take risks and try out new ideas incorporating the challenge the process concept given by Kouzes and Posner. Here the manager is not the leader, but the one who is good with working in team is leading. It believes completing a task is more about the team than the leader. The manager is sharing the vision with the entire team so that everyone in the team knows what they are doing and why. The practice of inspiring a shared vision can be found here. The belief that it is not the leader who has best ideas and the enlightened trial and error method succeeds over the planning of the lone genius shows that they enable others to act by making the team members feel valued.
The task of redesigning the shopping cart in five days was completed because of the active participation of everyone in the team. The team members were not product experts but they were experts in the process of design. The diversity of the team members allows different perspectives to the design challenge. The team members did not have any title and permanent job assignments that motivated them to take charge of their own work. The decision of the team to split up into groups and speak with the product experts to facilitate quick learning depicts their commitment to the work. There was a lot of brainstorming, discussion, demonstration, active listening and communication that facilitates the team work.
The team identified the problems with existing shopping carts and came up with the concepts to be incorporated in redesigning it that includes child safety, modularity while shopping, easy handling and facilitated checkout that provides the base of innovation. The no hierarchy system in the organization promotes innovative culture. The company’s practice of one conversation at a time, encouraging wild ideas, differing judgement and buliding on ideas of others provide basis for the innovation. The open-mindedness, demand of new ideas and belief that chaos can be constructive are the recipe of the organization for innovation that has been clearly depicted in the video.
Though this video is more about the success of IDEO because of leadership, teamwork and innovation, there are potential areas where these could fail. The consulting approach it follows is very time consuming and sometimes may cause delay in the execution due to long hours invested in planning. The deadline provides time constraint that may result in compromising of the design and innovation of the team. The idea of putting down everyone’s idea in the board for discussion is commendable but the members whose ideas are rejected or not discussed properly may feel demotivated to work. It is not always true that people from diverse background will form effective team as shown in the video because we have ample examples of team not performing well due to inability to reach to a consensus because of team members from varied background. The informal relationship between the team members may sometimes lead to unprofessional behaviors at work place.
References
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: A Wiley Brand.