Business: Culture Change

Shifting trends are forcing technology companies to reimagine their value proposition. IBM has chosen to create disruption through design. In embracing the future, the company is essentially invoking its past. Back in 1956, IBM was the first large company to establish a corporate-wide design program. But this time, the company’s goals are more ambitious.

Recently, we interviewed Karel Vredenburg, Director of IBM Design’s worldwide client program and head of IBM Studios in Canada, who told us, “We’ve put everything into this transformation.” The company is investing more than $100 million in becoming design centered. Read More

“We should try to leave the world a better place than when we entered it.”—Michio Kaku

Inclusiveness, diversity, and belonging in the workplace have become essential parts of a ubiquitous, ever-present ideology for organizations. Diversity and inclusion are quickly moving to the top of organizations’ lists of priorities because of the value they add. Not only do they contribute to creating a happier, more discretionary, and productive workforce, they also improve the organizations’ financial performance, as multiple studies have reported.

Still, one of the biggest challenges we face today is creating a diverse and inclusive environment for the workforce. Achieving true diversity and inclusion takes more than a training video or a session about being polite to coworkers. Many reputed organizations have been taking measures across multiple fronts—including hiring, promotions, opportunities, behavior, and more—to instill, improve, and constantly monitor these principles. Awareness of the business case for inclusion and diversity is on the rise. While social justice is typically the initial impetus behind these efforts, companies have increasingly begun to regard inclusion, diversity, and belonging as a source of competitive advantage—and more specifically, as a key enabler of growth. Read More

This is a sample chapter from Creative Culture: Human-Centered Interaction, Design, & Inspiration, by Justin Dauer. 2020 Lead Hand Books.

Chapter 4: Beyond the Viewport

While our livelihoods exist within the digital realm, inspiration has no such contextual boundaries.

We’ve discussed outlets, interactions, and moments to be seized while in the physical walls of our work environment. Within those halls is an enormous amount of energy to be harnessed and channeled—via our people—but what of the environment we pass through as we make our way into the office—via the people we design for?

In a design process, spatial dynamics are key to being mindful of the bigger picture in our work—via ethnography, user research, observation, and so on. Culturally, human connection and professional relationships are cultivated outside cubicle walls and email threads. In both instances, leveraging tangible interactions begins with the act of getting out of our chairs. Read More