Pieter van Langen

Feb

2020

How to determine an objective for capability development: 3 easy steps

To steer the development of a capability in your organization, you can determine an objective in three easy steps.

Steps to determine an objective

Advantage

Define which advantage the capability will bring to your organization.

Direction

Define a course of action for developing the capability in your organization.

Priority

Define the importance and urgency of developing the capability.

Advantage

You can perform a VRIO analysis to identify the advantage a capability brings to your organization. This allows you to find out four relevant properties. These properties are:

Valuable

Able to exploit opportunities and defend against threats.

Rare

Scarce and difficult to acquire.

Inimitable

Hard to copy or substitute.

Organized

Set up to capitalize on resources.

Direction

Determine a course of action for developing a certain capability as follows:

Pivot

If it is valuable but non-existent (in your organization).

Refine

If it is existent and valuable, but not rare.

Integrate

If it is existent, valuable, and rare, but not inimitable.

Support

If it is existent, valuable, rare, and inimitable, but not organized.

Maintain

If it is existent, valuable, rare, inimitable, and organized.

Priority

Determine a priority for developing a certain capability as follows:

Now

If it can be developed, which needs to be done first.

Next

If it can be developed, which needs to be done next.

Later

If it can be developed, which needs to be done at a later time.

Feb

2020

Tunnel design

Sector: Private

Industry: Construction

Domain: Tunnels

Preparation

Situation

Organization. The design and construction of a tunnel involves designers from seven different disciplines. In a tunnel engineering project, they produce seven partial designs of a tunnel, one for each discipline, together forming an integral design. When they find conflicts between the partial designs, they resolve them and modify their partial designs.

Environmental factors. A tunnel engineering project is a tender project. In the preparation phase, the availability of information needed for design is limited. During execution, time and money are limited.

Issues. The more conflicts between partial designs, the more effort, time, and money it takes to resolve them.

Ambition

Goal. Increase performance.

Objective. Minimise the number of conflicts between partial designs.

Benefits. Less design costs.

Assessment of tunnel design

Identify

Critical capabilities to minimise the number of conflicts between partial designs:

(Deliver a design service)
- Develop conflict-free partial designs [implicit].
- Develop an integral design [implicit].

Compare

Expected contributions of critical capabilities:

Reputation:
- Develop conflict-free partial designs.
- Develop an integral design.

Appraise

Presence of critical capabilities in the design team:

Absence:
- Develop conflict-free partial designs.

Organizational presence:
- Develop an integral design.

Advice for tunnel design

Refine

Critical capabilities:

Modify:
- Develop conflict-free partial designs.
- Develop an integral design.

Unite

Refined capabilities:

Connect:
- Develop conflict-free partial designs.
- Develop an integral design.

Secure

Unique capabilities:

System. Define a formal meta-model of integral designs as follows:
- (Manage a design service)
  1. Define an ontology of integral designs.
  2. Transform the ontology of integral designs into a formal meta-model.
System. Create a digital repository of integral designs as follows:
- (Manage a design service)
  1. Create a digital repository.
  2. Implement the formal meta-model of integral designs in the digital repository.
System. Create standard operating procedures for the following activities:
- (Manage a design service)
  - Manage the formal meta-model of integral designs.
  - Manage the digital repository of integral designs.
- (Deliver a design service)
  - Develop a conflict-free part of an integral design.

Skills. Train designers in the following activities:
- (Manage a design service)
  - Manage the formal meta-model of integral designs.
  - Manage the digital repository of integral designs.
- (Deliver a design service)
  - Develop a conflict-free part of an integral design.

Feb

2020

Plant redesign

Sector: Private

Industry: Services

Domain: Chemical plants

Preparation

Situation

Organization. Plant redesign comprises three stages. First, one of the designers is tasked with producing a conceptual design. Then, a small team prepares a basic design. Subsequently, a larger team produces a detailed design.

Environmental factors. Competition with other companies.

Issues. At present, the principal designer is the only one who masters the conceptual design stage. Training designers in this stage is going slowly. Since the expertise required is largely unique, hiring is not an option.

Ambition

Goal. Increase performance.

Objective. Reduce the dependency on the principal designer in the stage of conceptual design.

Benefits. Mitigated risk.

Assessment of plant redesign

Identify

Critical capabilities to reduce the key-man risk in the stage of conceptual design:

(Coordinate designing)
- Estimate the required effort [implicit].
- Determine the process flow [implicit].
(Specify design requirements)
- Appraise customer traits [explicit].
(Fulfil design requirements)
- Analyse the impact of a concept [explicit].
- Display commercial acumen [tacit and innate].

Compare

Expected contributions of critical capabilities:

Reputation:
- Estimate the required effort.
- Determine the process flow.
Stakeholder needs:
- Appraise customer traits.
- Analyse the impact of a concept.
- Display commercial acumen.

Appraise

Presence of critical capabilities in the design team:

Individual presence:
- Estimate the required effort.
- Determine the process flow.
- Appraise customer traits.
- Analyse the impact of a concept.
- Display commercial acumen.

Advice for plant redesign

Refine

Critical capabilities: no intervention needed.

Unite

Refined capabilities: no intervention needed.

Secure

Unique capabilities:

System. Include as instructions in the standard operating procedure:
- (Deliver a design service)
  - Appraise customer traits.
  - Analyse the impact of a concept.
System. Elicit and include as instructions in the standard operating procedure:
- (Deliver a design service)
  - Estimate the required effort.
  - Determine the process flow.
System. Circumscribe and/or illustrate and include as preconditions in the standard operating procedure:
- (Deliver a design service)
  - Display commercial acumen.
Skills. Train the responsible manager in assessing designers on having the capabilities mentioned in the preconditions of the standard operating procedure.
Skills. Train the designers who meet all preconditions in executing the standard operating procedure.

Feb

2020

Aircraft design

Sector: Private

Industry: Aerospace

Domain: Aircraft

Preparation

Situation

Organization. A team of designers is tasked to design a series aircraft. The team consists of senior designers and junior designers. When confronted with design issues, junior designers tend to slow down if no senior designers are looking over their shoulders or sparring with them.

Environmental factors. Competition with other aircraft manufacturers.

Issues. Less access to the knowledge of senior designers leads to more time and effort to resolve a design issue.

Ambition

Goal. Increase performance.

Objective. Increase access to know-how to design a series aircraft.

Benefits. Shorter design lead time.

Assessment of aircraft design

Identify

Critical capabilities to reduce the time needed to design a series aircraft:

(Deliver a design service)
- Design a new aircraft in an existing series [tacit].
- Retrieve the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series [implicit].
- Reuse the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series [implicit].
- Revise the design rationale of aircraft [implicit].
- Retain the design rationale of aircraft [implicit].

Compare

Contributions of critical capabilities:

Organizational strategy:
- Design a new aircraft in an existing series.
- Retrieve the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
- Reuse the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
- Revise the design rationale of aircraft.
- Retain the design rationale of aircraft.

Appraise

Presence of critical capabilities in the design team:

Group presence:
- Retrieve the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
- Reuse the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
- Revise the design rationale of aircraft.
- Retain the design rationale of aircraft.
Organizational presence:
- Design a new aircraft in an existing series.

Advice for aircraft design

Refine

Critical capabilities: no intervention needed.

Unite

Refined capabilities: no intervention needed.

Secure

Unique capabilities:

System. Elicit and include as instructions in the standard operating procedure:
- (Deliver a design service)
  - Retrieve the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
  - Reuse the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
  - Revise the design rationale of aircraft.
  - Retain the design rationale of aircraft.
Skills. Train junior designers in executing the standard operating procedure.

Background research

Frances Brazier, Pieter van Langen, and Jan Treur (1997). A compositional approach to modelling design rationale. AIEDAM 11, 125-139.

Nov

2019

7 sorts of knowledge that determine the power of design

Designers continually develop knowledge with customers, commissioners, users, fellow designers, partners, and other stakeholders. They acquire, create, and share knowledge of different sorts. This post explains which sorts of knowledge a team needs to accomplish design work.

Sorts of knowledge

A team’s organization rests on the following sorts of knowledge and their interrelationships.

Strategy: the plan to accomplish design goals.
Structure: the way of organizing design work.
Systems: processes and procedures of design.
Style: the way designing is approached.
Specialisms: fields of specialization of designers.
Skills: talents and abilities of designers.
Shared values: accepted values, norms, and standards for designing.

7 sorts of knowledge that determine the power of design 6

These seven sorts almost entirely correspond with the seven internal factors in the McKinsey 7S Model. Other points of departure are conceivable, but the McKinsey 7S Model applies well in practice. Furthermore, many managers know this model. For a brief introduction to this model, see, for instance, Strategic Management Insight or Investopedia.

In practice, the two sorts Systems and Style can be hard or unnecessary to distinguish. For instance, a design team may define style as the processes and procedures the team members are used to follow. In such cases, you may conveniently combine the two sorts into one sort, System.

Framework for design knowledge

The seven sorts of knowledge and their interrelationships form a framework that can be used to:

Analyze a design activity.
Grow knowledge that is of interest to design work.
Make design knowledge part of a team’s DNA.

Nov

2019

Member of Ooa

In November 2019, Pieter van Langen (founder and owner of Design Impulse) has become a member of Ooa, the Dutch Order of organization experts and advisors. Ooa is the eldest professional association for consultants in the world. Through its membership, Design Impulse likes to express that our customers can always count on knowledgeable, professional, and challenging consultancy.

Ooa: Dutch order of organization experts and advisors. — Ooa

Ooa acts as a knowledge platform for members, organizing knowledge exchange between consultants and other professionals. In 1989, Ooa joined the International Council of Management Consultancy Institutes (ICMCI). See the website of Ooa for more information (in Dutch).

Oct

2019

Launch Design Impulse

Organizations act in a complex world to achieve goals. The successful ones display curiosity, creativity, and commitment to change. And more often than not, design drives the success of these enterprises, companies, and institutions.

Successful organizations display curiosity, creativity, and commitment to change. — Successful organizations

By investing in design, success can show itself in several ways:

Revenues and profit. Generate revenues 20 times, profit 4 times, and exports 5 times more (Design Council, 2012).
Return on value. Return twice as much as the Standard & Poor’s 500 index (Design Management Institute, 2015).
Org performance. Grow twice as fast as the benchmark (McKinsey, 2018).

For this reason, Pieter van Langen decided to launch Design Impulse. We are an independent Dutch management consulting firm specializing in design leadership consulting. Consult us to make design strong and strategic in your organization.