Change has become a signifier of an organisation being proactive on the one hand or failing on the other. It is often packaged into a process with clearly demarcated steps that can be navigated through. However, the reality is one where change is ever present; it happens all the time, from within the individual leader to the team, to the organisation and in society. Fundamentally, change as a process can too often miss two critical components, culture and conflict. John will explore how change exists within organisations and how rituals of conflict work to frame culture. He will make the claim that with any change, there needs to be conflict and by decoding the cultural structures of conflict provides rich and creative potential for leadership, innovation and design.

1. Embracing Conflict:
Designing For Culture
@drjcurran

2. The interface between
organisational culture and
consumer culture

3. The interface between
organisational culture and
consumer culture
Where does design sit here?

5. The Ritual of the Ward Round

8. Organisational rituals
reaffirm the cosmology of professional rank and power.

9. Organisational rituals
reaffirm the cosmology of professional rank and power.
Formalised use of space and the body

10. Consultant
Teacher
Suit
Father

11. Consultant
Teacher
Suit
Father
Junior Dr.
Student
Chinos
Son

12. SUB CULTURES PERFORM
The meaning
of space is wrapped in
unconscious
performances where the social
actors meet social
requirements.

13. Date: 11th Nov 2012
Impression Management:
Front Stage vs. Back Stage
Goffman

14. We face a tension:

15. We face a tension:
The design world is culturally programmed to focus on designing out
conflict instead of incorporating conflict

16. HCD or MCD
Where does conflict sit here?

17. “Design thinking is fundamentally
conservative and preserves the
status quo
Harvard Business Review

18. “ The designer is somehow
suspended above the fray or
political bias
Harvard Business Review

19. Conflict
is an essential part of culture and its social relationships.

20. Design
needs to design for culture

21. “Culture is the tacit social order of an
organisation: it shapes attitudes and
behaviours in wide-ranging and
durable ways.
Harvard Business Review

22. BAD CULTURE MINDSET:
Fixed
Mission driven
Ideological

23. BAD CULTURE MINDSET:
Fixed
Mission driven
Ideological
Denial of Reality

24. GOOD CULTURE MINDSET:
Messy
Complex
Irrational
Conflict
Organic
Unconscious

25. Organisational culture
has sub-cultures that make the whole

26. Sub-Cultures
need an enemy in order to know who they are

27. THE STORY OF A GLOBAL FMCG
BRAND

28. Marketing Team
Innovation & Insight Team
Sales Team
Communication Team

29. Marketing Team Think A
Innovation & Insight Team Think B
Sales Team Think C
Communication Team Think D

30. A
D B
C
WE ARE ONE

31. A
D B
C
COLLABORATION

32. A
D B
C
REALITY = SILO

33. Anthropologist Mary Douglas
Social Taboos keep order by managing “matter out of place” – things that don’t fit its culture

34. Taboo
“The things that everyone knows but no one is supposed to talk about”.
David Graeber

35. 60 Second
Thinking Environment

36. 85%

37. 85%
of executives surveyed in Europe and US claim to not want to talk about certain
issues in case it causes conflict
Margaret Heffernan, TED

38. Conflict enables change

39. 3 IMPORTANT C’s

40. CULTURE
3 IMPORTANT C’s

41. CULTURE
3 IMPORTANT C’s
CHANGE

42. CULTURE
3 IMPORTANT C’s
CHANGE CONFLICT

43. CULTURE
3 IMPORTANT C’s
CHANGE CONFLICT

44. All change has conflict

45. All change has conflict
In anthropological ritual this is the liminal stage where everything goes a little mad – out of the norm

46. Conflict needs to be
Thinking Data

47. 3 Types of Conflict Data

48. 3 Types of Conflict Data
Practical Conflict – Products and Services

49. 3 Types of Conflict Data
Practical Conflict – Products and Services
Emotional Conflict – Threat to identity

50. 3 Types of Conflict Data
Practical Conflict – Products and Services
Emotional Conflict – Threat to identity
Professional Conflict – Disagreements, power, status

51. 3 Types of Conflict Data
Practical Conflict – Products and Services
Emotional Conflict – Threat to identity
Professional Conflict – Disagreements, power, status

52. 3 Types of Conflict Data
Practical Conflict – Products and Services
Emotional Conflict – Threat to identity
Professional Conflict – Disagreements, power, status

53. 3 Types of Conflict Data
Practical Conflict – Products and Services
Emotional Conflict – Threat to identity
Professional Conflict – Disagreements, power, status

54. 3 Types of Conflict Data
Practical Conflict – Products and Services
Emotional Conflict – Threat to identity
Professional Conflict – Disagreements, power, status

55. Culture therefore needs
constant decoding

56. SLAM CULTURE MODEL

57. Being a leader
is having the ability to understand first how cultural factors shape the behaviour of their employees
and customers then to facilitate these factors to execute key strategies.

58. From a ’Knowing Culture’to a ’Learning Culture’
SatyaNadella,CEO,Microsoft

59. SEE(K)
LEARN
ACT
MANAGE

60. SEE(K):
To observe and understand the cultural pulse of each team or department

61. LEARN:
To reflect on yourself, to identify needs, to understand rituals of productivity, power or
resistance - insights

62. ACT:
To challenge, support, listen and create shared strategies to meet goals while
preserving sub-culture identity.

63. MANAGE
To monitor, adjust, repeat.

64. MANAGE
SLAM CULTURE MODEL
LEARN
SEE(K)
ACT

65. MANAGE
SLAM CULTURE MODEL
LEARN
SEE(K)
ACT
REAL
EMPATHY
TRANSLATECOMMUNICATE &
EMBED
MONITOR
& REVIEW

66. Empathy
Empathy is more than walking in the shoes of others…it is about being fundamentally reflective about
you and being able to challenge yourself and others…

67. MANAGE
SLAM CULTURE MODEL
LEARN
SEE(K)
ACT
REAL
EMPATHY
TRANSLATECOMMUNICATE &
EMBED
MONITOR
& REVIEW

68. CLEAR SHARED STRATEGY

69. CLEAR SHARED STRATEGY
WHILE MAINTANING DIFFERENCE

70. A
D B
C
BACK TO THE SILO

71. A
D B
C
CULTURE CHAMPIONS
+
DIFFERENCE
=
SHARED CREATIVITY

72. A
D B
C
CULTURE CHAMPIONS
+
DIFFERENCE
=
SHARED CREATIVITY
Without loosing the values of each sub-culture

73. CULTURE CHAMPIONS
=
INNOVATIONS
=
VALUE
A
D B
C
Each sub-cultures voice is heard with one champion

74. Take Homes

75. To be Human, Meaning or People centered,
start with organisational culture
because

76. Problem solving
is always messy

77. Problem solving
is always messy and might not always produce the best solutions because of unconsciously
favouring the political bias

78. Conflict can be the creative data we are
missing
Stretch and explore becasue we are also part of the cultural dynamics

79. “WE ARE SOMETIMES SO BLIND
TO OUR OWN BLINDNESS”
Daniel Kahneman

80. Design for Conflict

81. Thank You