EMBEDDING DESIGN:

5 PARADOXES, AN AUSTRALIAN

CASE STUDY

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN? MindLab, Copenhagen Sept 1st-2nd 2011

T O P I C

H OW DO PUBL IC ORGANI SAT IONS G IVE

S P A C E TO DES IGN EXPER IME NTS ?

PRESENTATION TODAY

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PhD Research

project - “10 year design

experiment”

Definition of “design”

Making space:

paradoxes

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NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

PHD RESEARCH PROJECT-

“10 YEAR DESIGN EXPERIMENT”

Adoption and innovation of design methods

and approaches in the Australian Taxation Office

from early 2000‟s to today.

More than methods and techniques, it is more

than “product design”, it is about the re-shaping

of an organisation‟s way of working, its

relationships with others in the Australian

Taxation System and tackling complex

problems.

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HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

How design has played a role in shifting

entrenched inward bureaucratic views of

public policy and administration design to

more outward citizen centred approaches.

That is the role of design as a way for public

organisations to introduce a new form of logic

that is inherently more participatory and

human-centred in its management style.

My research has aimed to answer the

question: How has design become a

management practice in a complex public

organisation?

1“NEXT FRONTIER OF

PUBLIC MANAGEMENT”HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

“NETWORK OF ACTORS”

To understand the management practice -

socially constructed meaning

The analytical framework is inspired by a post

modern view of grounded theory – situational

analysis

opens up the data

Using actor network theory as the line of

inquiry.

network or web of actions and activities.

action is located, allocated and

advocated.

role of human and non-human actants

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HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

DEFINITION OF “DESIGN”

Design

=

Managing by

Design

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In the public management context, public

managers do many “types of work”.

One aspect of their work is about making

change and creating preferred futures.

It is this type of work that design methods,

standardised practices, design people – can

be usefully employed.

Therefore “manage by design” is when

management work is performed by taking a

more human-centred, participatory, visual

and physical approach to bring change and

create preferred futures.NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

DEFINITION OF “CHANGE”

Design

=

Managing by

Design

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In the ATO case study “manage by design”

was applied when:

New policy or measure (imposed by

government)

Internally generated change

Constituent generated change

These design problem triggers are important

to acknowledge in the public sector context

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

DEFINITION OF “PRODUCT”

Design

=

Managing by

Design

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The “product” being designed in the public

management context is:

The taxpayer or tax professional or

other actor experience (from > to)

The administrative products that define

this change e.g. form, letter, website,

advice, etc

The integrated layers of an organisation

that realise these products e.g. people,

structure, culture, processes, tools and

technology

These are elements that are within the

„control‟ of the organisation and also „in

the system‟NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

PARADOXES93

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

Why?

Observed

Contradictions

Seemingly don‟t make sense at first but

then they do

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Paradox 1:

To embed managing by

design “with-in” you must

embed “with-out”

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

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Design Arena

Tax Design Domain

Australian Tax OfficeTreasury

Privacy Commission

Super Funds

Software companies

Design

CommunityArena

Tax Agents

User researchers,

Facilitators, Info

designers

Design

Managers

Designers

Project

managers

Community

Third Parties

ArenaSoftware Users

Fund MembersExpert Users

Tax Agents Board

Consultants

Sim Centre

Leaders

Business

Solutions

Design

Centres

New Policy

Process

Academics

Business Analyst

Business Process Modeller

Capability build team

Business

Solutions

Commissioners

Consultative groups

Design Champion

Distributed design areas

IntermediariesModel office

team

Other agencies

Allocating work to designers

A lot of changes imposed

Bit disjointed

Business as usual projects

Design artefacts

design forms in

front of them

Design methodology

Design Managers

meetings

Design questions

Design team

core skills

Design resource

centre (online)

Doing design without realising it

Fix fundamentals

not working

Information design

Mentoring days

Not one size fits allModel office

Over mechanistic

Paper products

Pathways

Policy driven

Practice statements

Project Management

methodology

Rapid Solution design

Speed of design

Substitute users

Testing

Understanding design methods

User research

User walkthrough

Workshops

Communication:

Letters, Website

Transactional:

Forms, Tax

agent portal

Support: Call

Centres

Bottom line kind of person

Core design team

Design capability

General

designers

Senior designer

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

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“Yes and so a lot of the design capabilities that the ATO is having to nurture is the ability to influence those who are impacting on the

design and who do not live within the ATO”

(Senior leader 1, interview 2009)

“I think we’ve largely delivered on what we said we’d do. I think the trust element has been reinforced and we can point to initiatives where

the community, that human centred part of it, is actually influenced what we’ve done”

(Senior leader 2, interview 2009)

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

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Paradox 2:

Design needs freedom and

discipline

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

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3 Senior Designer: “Yes and - but you need that freedom to be able to be thinking out there because you just never know when you’re going to get that key bit that makes the whole thing come together but you’ve also got to be disciplined enough to go okay, enough” (Senior Designer, Interview, 2008)

Senior leader: “…because I think one of the things that’s very good about the design science though that’s been brought to the ATO is this more scientific approach to design, which is to say let us make observations that are freer or almost free of bias” (Senior leader, Interview 2009)

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

Design principles

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HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

Design artefacts are not standardised

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Paradox 3:

Design is mandatory

and a choice

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

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“By following a conscious design methodology and process (applying the design principles together with early community involvement wherever practical”

(Designing Change in the Tax Office, PS CM 2006/11 p7.)

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

Practice Statement

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Senior leader who played a key role in the establishment of design in the ATO:

“Yes. Yes, look it’s a model that’s really inspired by the chaos theory which was my strategy, which was don’t try and impose something on the whole system. Don’t try and impose some big monolith on

the whole system. Instead set up a attractors, areas of attraction. So I didn’t even go in with a top down

approach and say you must set up a design centre. I waited for people to come to me. But I had a model in my mind that when they rang me and said look, I really need some help with design I would say look, we’ve got a couple of people but you’re going to need a lot

more resource than that so how about you set up a design capability and we’ll help you do that? And pretty well everyone

bought that argument because they like that too. They keep the resources under their control so that’s good.” (Interview 2008)

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

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HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

Paradox 4:

Design collaborates to

compete for space

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HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

“Design by interdisciplinary, cross functional teams”

Bringing together existing expertise and knowledge in the organisation. No attempt to stop, alter or diminish expertise in other social worlds instead it acknowledged and embraced the diversity.

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HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

Senior Tax Technical manager: “I’m kind of a bottom line kind of person. I want to get to the outcome and the truth is to do design properly you work through a process. So, to work through a process, for me, is not always, but can be, a little frustrating because it’s the obstacle where I am now and where I want to be but the simple reality is I need people who stop me and say, “wait a minute, there’s a process to go through here” (Interview, 2009)

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HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

Paradox 5:

Who can design is

exclusive and inclusive

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HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

Senior leader: “We have specialists and specialist facility that allow us to do observations of how people go about their taxation obligations. And also allow us to put in front of people products that we might be considering to observe them actually carrying out those – trying to deal with those products. And that that gives us an unbiased feedback as to the efficacy of those products”. (Interview , 2009, senior leader)

Design Capability Framework: Core capabilities for design practitioners – overview section

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HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

Senior Manager: “You ideally have to have some faith in the [design] people you’re listening to and at the end of the day, you have to realise that a better design, in fact, ultimately gets a better outcome. If you’re really lucky, maybe even a cheaper outcome. So, to me, it’s a focus on those sorts of things”

(Interview, 2009)

PARADOXES253

To embed managing by design “with-in” you must embed “with-out”

Design needs freedom and discipline

Design is mandatory and a choice

Design collaborates to compete for space

Who can design is exclusive and inclusive

HOW PUBLIC DESIGN?

COPENHAGEN SEPT 1ST-2ND 2011

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NINA TERREY, UNIVERSITY OF

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA

SUMMARY

These paradoxes describe how space has been created in this organisation

There is a multiplicity of approaches

There are many tensions that co-exist

The balance between these sorts of tensions permits space for design to be part of the management work

WORKSHOP

OPEN BRAINSTORM

What questions might we explore as a group?

Select three questions

Form small groups and openly explore and capture comments as sticky-notes:

Initial ideas, comments, questions, hypothesis

Cluster like ideas, comments, questions, hypothesis

Label each cluster

Report back

Distil workshop theme statement

How do we create space for frontline workers to design? Is it critical that to do design it is “outside” the normal day to day public manager work?

How do we build trust? What evidence? Level playing fields

How might we drive design all the way up the value chain?

PANEL

My response to the question what barriers?

Barriers to Design being embedded in organisations – 2 points (not only)1. Organisations are transient – they are

networks – people move – therefore it is ongoing work to translate and embed design as a management approach

2. Absence of integrated leadership about design – I talked about the failing of one large org in Australia that embedded at the TOP and the BOTTOM, millions of dollars, nothing left. I then discussed the model in the ATO that integrates leadership from: CDF: top tier working on strategic problems collaboratively, the Health of Design Forum: Leaders managing resources and talking about vision for design; the Design Managers forum: meet monthly, discuss the work, the resourcing and practical challenges’; and the communities of practice for designers and practitioners to weekly or monthly talk about methods.

I was asked to briefly describe my interests:

Interests

-Respecting the public manager and acknowledging that there is some work of Public managers which can be best done by taking a design approach- I am interested in the “scaffolding” that needs to be put in place in organisations for design to survive and thrive- I am also interested in the new equation: the new design public manager and the new citizen

CONTACT DETAILS

nina.terrey@thinkplace.com.au

+61 414 247 529

www.thinkplace.com.au

Address

55 Wentworth Avenue, Kingston, Australia, ACT 2604