Co-designing an inclusive organisation
Nishita Dewan, the founder of CollaboratEQ, commissioned Kath to support her human-centred design project to co-design a more inclusive organisation for her client in the arts and science sector. Kath’s role was to help co-design the process, research methods, and facilitation as well as design engaging presentations of the findings and interactive activities and materials for workshops and deliverables.
CollaboratEQ team, left to right; Lou Platt, Nishita Dewan and Kath Simpson
The project applied the Design Council’s Double Diamond approach, going through the phases; discover, define, develop and deliver. To ensure we got a greater understanding of the organisation and to take them on a journey we engaged with 40% of the staff and worked more closely with a group of 17 participants. The smaller group represented a cross-section of the organisation who captured a broad range of experiences that influenced inclusivity in the workplace and who would then co-create solutions to address any opportunities and gaps they faced.
Over four months we combined workshops, 1:1 Interviews, desktop research, group reflection, ideation sessions and commitment workshops to facilitate deep engagement and understanding.
As part of the project, we helped facilitate environments that encouraged all participants to take risks in front of one another to unlock transformative ways of working and help gain a deeper understanding ensuring creative solutions would have the desired impact. To further mobilise that type of openness we had the support of Lou Platt, an integrative therapist, counsellor and artist wellbeing practitioner.
We delivered engaging and comprehensive visualisations of the needs, barriers and opportunities to inform a clear brief that supported the organisation to become more inclusive. Together we co-created a breadth of prototype categories and ideas to inform creative solutions and art directed a short video of the findings for the whole organisation to understand the inclusivity journey in a compelling way. As a result, the ideas are being implemented by The Access, Diversity and Inclusion team.
““I feel that being in a space where uncomfortable but essential conversations were welcomed and considered slowly will influence how I speak and what I speak about with colleagues outside of this process. The process has given me more confidence in my ideas and questions – which I often hold back or keep to myself.”
— Participant”
SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT
Supported design-thinking and research methodologies. 1-1 interviews. Creativity and ideation workshops. Co-designed workshops and materials. Co-facilitated four all-day workshops. Art directed video content. Weekly blogs on organisations intranet. Synthesis of findings. Presentation design.
TEAM
CollaboratEQ consultancy led by Nishita Dewan, and supported by Kath Simpson, Designer