Systemic Design - reinventing work for smarter services
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Going deeper into the systemic design of services; complexity & systems thinking workshop

10 hour course workshop

Designing services in organisations is moving from simple transactional, towards more complex and human centred services - especially in the public sector.  Systemic design is pushing us into new ways of working beyond the boundaries of our existing approaches.

Workshop objectives

  • Develop new ways of understanding citizens, that will capture empathic needs.
  • To recognise complex characteristics and how to incorporate them into design.
  • Understand human centred design, in contrast to product or process design.
  • Incorporate systems thinking, complexity and systemic design concepts and tools.
  • Revisit the double diamond method, and expand it to incorporate systemic design.
  • Apply new ways of working - helping reinventing the work.
"'Tremendous value, lots of grounding, loved the examples… Every expectation fulfilled."
"This is a very new way of looking at things..."
systemic design workshop
human learning systems
How - I don't know why so much of what is out there seems to be so complicated and uses long words! Using robust examples and case studies that I and others have undertaken, we will explore systemic design underlying concepts and methods, And we will use realistic language and interpret concepts to the real world that we all understand. The workshop is designed to look at how you can incorporate systemic design in your work, to develop new ways of working, concepts and methods, that you can take forward in your journey of developing yourself through your work.

Ideally, you perhaps are;
  • You are an experienced designer. Or you may be leading other designers.
  • You are a change person, wishing to learn wider systemic techniques.
  • You may be a manager or owner of a service, wishing to delve closer to the design of services.

5, 6, 7 October, 2022    9am - 12:30 each day
Three half days over three consecutive days.
3.5 x 3 = 10.5 hrs total hour.
14 participants max to ensure quality engagement.
Location; Wherever you are! Online - Zoom

Price of workshop

£400 per person, inc vat. Three half days.
£320 outside UK non-vat (email me)
Book & pay
 If you have any further questions, please email me on john.mortimer@improconsult.co.uk

Why do this course now?

We are pretty good at transforming services like online shopping, and ordering new passports. Costs have been slashed, and the user experience has got loads better. But what happens when we delve into services that are not quite so transactional; services  that have elements of complexity? That are more about people than product? How can we overcome resistance to change?

​Simply using our current methods is not enough. And some of us are realising that the outcomes are not what we had hoped. This is especially the case in the public sector, as we move away from transactional design, and begin to tackle complexity in services like adult social care and homelessness.


Today we recognise that Service Design or Change in organisations, as a practice, is becoming less about delivering products and project management, and more about impacting the end to end service change; together with integrating this into how the business really works and is managed. This workshop is about incorporating proven progressive systemic design and change concepts and methods that deal with the characteristics of people rather than products, we can look at how to deepen and strengthen our skills to enable us to become a more effective.
"A big game changer…"
  "We should be spending more time, not simply delivering Digital, but doing this..."

Why is this workshop different?

systemic design workshop
You can already do a course on systems thinking, or read a book about complexity. But they are often theoretical, or they are very general.
Or you might learn about different tools.
In this workshop, what is different is that we will use successful examples of Change & Systemic Design; both from the public and private sector, to examine the current limitations of current popular methods, and see how these can be overcome. We will link new systemic change principles with new techniques; some that you can use immediately, and others that will give you pointers for further and deeper collaboration with change experts outside of your change discipline.

This course is a practical exploration, where concepts are used to inform the learning around real case studies. The hard work of sifting through theories, books and blogs has been done for you!

This is a live course that adapts to your own challenges and barriers to effective design, that you will bring to the workshop. We will explore together how we might overcome them using our new found knowledge.

Lets hear it from the participants...

I found it brilliantly human; when we are put into an organisation  machine design, we are not built like this. This shows the foundation of human-centred design.
What John is doing, the mix of systems thinking and service design in a really practical way. No-one does this. This is really interesting.…
How powerful it is when we can bring this and make this visible, and help the decision-makers to make the right decisions.
​The reason so many Digital projects fail is that were not helping the staff to build the service first…

 Systemic design to deal with change with Complexity

We will start with the customer or citizen, and learn systemic ways of understanding how customer demand can be understood and designed, moving beyond user research and data. That will then lead us into the service operations workflow, and the main aspects of delivery that impacts on what matters to customers. We are going to delve into the fuzzy elements of knowledge beyond data, and tackle how complex information is best collated, stored and used.

Systems thinking is often taught as a series of models or techniques, but it is much more than that. It is actually a different way of perceiving and understanding an organisation and its design.

Rather than understanding an organisation as a machine and delivery as a series of events, complexity is central to how organisations and people work. We will delve into how complexity affects design and how managers and designers make decisions.  We will bring out the Human, how we develop Learning methods, and the Systemic aspects of design. Commonly known as Human Learning Systems. This incorporates the Vanguard method.

You will learn how to observe the whole service as a Complex Adaptive System, so that we can incorporate how to succeed with change, and how to design staff to work together. And we will look at how to engage managers and leaders so that, together with staff, we apply co-creation.

​The workshop, will introduce systemic design concepts, that you as the participant will then be able to develop further in your work and in future learning. 
systemic triple diamond method
systemic triple diamond design method
We will delve into some existing change & design methods. We will also re-examine the Double Diamond developed by the Design Council
"This is opening up my role; how it could be..."   

GDS and Local government service design; Human Learning Systems

Local government service design is now demanding that it moves into the realm of more complex people centred design. Co-design and collaborative approaches are being experimented with, that move service design to cover far more than the simple transaction products it currently does so well. 
There is much talk about person-centred and systemic design, but the reality is often something that is less than robust. 
This approach we will be examining is underpinned by  Human Learning Systems, a collection of proven case studies and a methodology put together by Prof. Toby Lowe from conceptual and practice strands of research.
​
human learning systems

Co-creation and wider collaboration

Understand how you can better engage with, and collaborate better, with other change experts in the organisation. Widening your scope - using their language and understanding how to co-design a service from end to end, and from the bottom up. Moving service design towards the realm of redesigning whole services.

Learn techniques to dissolve departmental conflict, engage stakeholders, and collaborate towards a common focus.

Workshop detail

  • Identify different types of change & design.
  • Starting with sense-making as a far more powerful way of understanding the customer.
  • Uncovering true person-centred design.
  • Bringing stakeholders together with a common purpose.
  • Complexity, and how its understanding liberates us to new approaches.
  • How to recognise and navigate the limitations of Digital.
  • Co-creation; making it work.
  • Cutting through the trendy terminology and focus on practice.
  • Begin to develop and practice Systemic Design.
  • Systemic graphic facilitation; communicating complexity.
  • Fuzzy and messy data, what to do with it.
  • From analysis, to synthesis.
  • Big pictures and narrative story-telling.
  • Wicked and systemic problem solving.
  • ​Purposeful service design.
  • Reframe problems to deepen our redesign work.
systemic design
systemic design evolution

Course design

Module 1 - The core of systemic design and complexity, discussing the implications for the design methods we use today. We will go through some concepts using a case study, where we will hear from those involved in the case study, and relate that to the concepts. Day 1.
Module 2 - Working on what we have learned, to delve into the reality of Co-design, and the methodology of design in complex environments. We will link into deeper aspects of Systems & Design thinking, where you will participate by bringing your previous experience to the group to discuss ways forward. Day 2
Module 3 - This is where we  we will stand back and complete the synthesis between Systems, Design and Complexity.  And we will bring the elements we have discussed together, so that you can relate this to your specific work. This module benefits from using the experiences of those in the group to boost our sense-making  from the interactions between us. Day 3

With different groups it is usual to modify the contect to suit their needs and level of detail necessary. Please ask me for alterative designs for this type workshop.

About John Mortimer

I originally started in engineering, IT and managing operational departments, quickly realising that the ability to make a difference lay beyond the technology or in any specialism itself. I have worked in software, operations, engineering, robotics, and finally business consulting. I have an MBA that corresponds to a business background.
Over 40 direct interventions in change and transformation, learned from consultancies and experts in their field. 
I am now returning back the experience and knowledge gained, both from the mistakes, and the successful outcomes that have been achieved across a myriad of services. Incorporating learning has been borrowed by ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’.
We have been working with different methods to incorporate Design Thinking into organisational design using systems thinking, since 2003. Looking at how to go about re-inventing work, and the way we manage and work together.
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Pre-requisites & Preparation

After booking, you will receive invitation details, and be asked about the issues you face at work that you hope to work on in this workshop.
You will already have real world design or change experience to gain maximum benefit from the workshop. And you must be expecting to expand your view of Design that you currently hold, that will challenge some of your currently held assumptions. If you're not prepared to absorb new concepts, internalise them, and move them forward yourself, this workshop is perhaps not for you.
A virtual medium is not ideal for any workshop, and a significant design effort has gone into making this as effective and a learning environment as it could be.
​For further reflection, a one to one follow up session is also included in this course.

​Your level of English will be good, as is your ability to engage, learn and apply your curiosity.
You will need to have access to a good screen and audio/ visual.
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  • What we do
    • Organisation scan
    • Reinventing work & systemic design
    • Public service design
    • Service design & systems thinking
  • Articles
    • Examples of Systemic Design
  • News
  • Portfolio & case studies
    • Systemic design triple diamond
    • webinars
    • About John
    • Approach
  • Course workshop
    • Systemic design & change Workshop
  • Contact me