Social Business Design: Marigo Raftopoulos
Strategic Essentials
An introduction to business renewal November 2009

What is social
business design?
• Evolved out of classical thinking
about the social nature of humanity
• Workplace organisation,
management & technology need to
better integrate and adapt to the
social needs, preferences and nature
of people
• The new economy requires a different
approach to building knowledge
systems, social capital and human
capability
• Learning capability is the true capital
of a firm - open systems, interactions
between employees and between
employees and stakeholders

Related to Design
Thinking
• A process of practical, creative
resolution of problems or issues
that looks for an improved
result
• A combination of empathy,
creativity and rationality to meet
user needs and drive business
success

What does SBD
influence?
• Organisation structure
Creating Spaces
• Job,workflow & process design
Creating Experiences
• Organisational culture & values
Facilitating Community
• Organisational systems & technology
Enabling Participation
• Ensuring your business remains a
viable enterprise that is future-ready

Key drivers for SBD
• The end of business as usual - the
post-industrial model of competition &
consumption becomes unsustainable
• Turbulent business environments
driven by shifts in technology,
economics & community values
• Rethink our business models & core
value propositions
• Shifting expectations of staff (work-
life balance) and stakeholders (ethics,
accountability & sustainability)

SBD drives business
innovation
SBD redefines business culture Culture drives innovation

And there is no destination. SBD Continuous renewal &
is being in perpetual beta adaption

This is what SBD is...
Building & leveraging Facilitating community, Open plan, open source
distributed intelligence networks & sociability and open engagement

This is what it isn’t...
Command, control & Heirarchy and power Fear, secrecy & closed
bureaucracy networks

20 years in the
making of SBD
• Organisational development
• Learning organisations
• Systems dynamics & systems
thinking
• Social & organisational
network analysis
• Design for creativity &
innovation
• Complexity science in
business
• One for the geeks - Cluetrain
Manifesto anyone?

Aren’t we social already?
• The post industrial model of business
tends to be ‘anti-social’ - mechanistic,
hierarchal, paternalistic, closed systems
• This hidden legacy is contained within
existing structures, processes and
systems that are anchored to the ‘best
practice’ of the past
• The legacy system was designed for
stable, simple, planned environments
• We are now in an era of complexity
that requires businesses to be designed
for innovation & agility - and
sustainability

Key elements of SBD:
spaces, community, experiences, participation
!!3'(@%>(5'?% !!=,)5;&1(.-'%
!!A'1B,#C'?% !!=,&&(>,#(.-'%
!!D$*&'% !!:(&;'5%>(5'?%
Experience &
!"#$%"$#&% '$("$#&%
E=#'(.)$% EG(/*&*1(.)$% participation
70(/'5F% =,@@;)*12F% stimulates the senses by
creating an emotional
connection to the
,#-%&**&*% !)*"&+*% task at hand. This creates
E=#'(.)$% EH)(>&*)$% intrinsic value and
HI0'#*')/'5F% 9(#./*0(.,)F%
motivation
!!9(#./*0(1,#2% !!"#$%&'(#)*)$%
!!:,&;)1(#2% !!+)),-(.-'%
!!7'&<%#'$;&(.)$% /(0(/*12%
!!3'/4%1,,&5%6%78%

The role of
technology in SBD
• Technology is an enabler, not a
systemic solution
• Outdated corporate IT & intranets are
not communication & collaboration
friendly
• Brilliant new collaborative, KM &
communication tools help enable SBD
• Wikis, packaged content
• Blogs, widgets, mini-sites
• RSS, data feeds, open APIs
• Social bookmarking
• Social networks

Let’s look at this a
Just for Fun!
different way...

Game designers
are experts in SBD
• Definition of a “game”:
• a possibility space
• a series of meaningful paths &
choices
• a series of patterns, problems
& puzzles to solve
• a form of practice for real life
challenges
• a system in which players
engage in gameplay defined
by rules that result in a
quantifiable outcome

SBD elements by a Game Designer: Possibility
Give players the tools Empower so they want Create a space to
to create an empire to save the world explore & experiment
...in their own way

SBD elements by a Game Designer: Participation
Emergent gameplay Non linear story telling Player created content
entices & stimulates fascinates & exercises the engages through
action & strategy players mind co-creation

It’s about creating a possibility
...and discovery space open to interpretation,
reinvention & recreation

We are fighting a losing battle
What game designers against the human brain; it
continually soaks up new
know... patterns, puzzles & gameplay

New frontiers, new
possibilities
• Game designers create possibility
spaces where people discover,
create & solve their own puzzles -
rather than plan it all for them
• Possibility spaces do not pre-
determine problems & solutions,
they let them emerge
• Player centered content creates
infinite possibilities & permutations
- and engagement
• Seen in the growth in popularity of
multiplayer games, augmented
reality, simulations & virtual reality

Games (and business) need to be
designed to allow people to engage with These are precursors for
their innate knowledge, intelligence & innovation & productivity
capabilities - and each other

possibility space
design
culture
experience
interraction
innovation
social business
summary
design

Design for tomorrow
• Current research: social & ecological
sustainability are inextricably linked
• New ideas on sustainable development
need to come from bottom up within
businesses:
• employee empowerment
• community collaboration
• organisational culture & values
• integration with core business
• Organisations need to be fully
sustainable and sustaining
• Baseline level of social & technical
competence is essential to build
innovative capacity - delivered by SBD

Thank You!
Marigo Raftopoulos
Strategic Essentials
Strategic|Games|Lab
marigo@strategicessentials.com.au
Twitter: @marigo
http://talesfromthecasbah.blogspot.com