Pieter van Langen

Feb

2020

How to determine objectives in 3 easy steps

Seven sorts of knowledge constitute the foundation of organisational capabilities. Such capabilities usually do not come naturally. This post explains how to determine objectives for developing organisational capabilities.

Steps to determine objectives

Suppose that you want to develop a certain organizational capability. How can you determine an objective for this? You can do this in three steps.

Advantage

Define which advantage the capability brings.

Direction

Define a course of action for developing the capability.

Priority

Define the importance and urgency of developing the capability.

Advantage

You can perform a VRIO analysis to identify the advantage an organizational ability brings. 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 an organizational capability as follows:

Produce

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 given ability as follows:

If its development is urgent and requires your personal attention.

Plan

If its development is less urgent but requires your personal attention.

Delegate

If its development is urgent but does not require your personal attention.

Eliminate

If its development is less urgent and does not require your personal attention.

Feb

2020

Tunnel design

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 time and effort it takes to resolve them.

Ambition

Objective. Minimise the number of conflicts between partial designs.

Benefits. Less design effort and lower design costs.

Analysis. Worth pursuing.

Assessment of tunnel design

Identify

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

Deliver design service:
- Develop an integral design [implicit].
- Develop conflict-free partial designs [implicit].

Compare

Ranking of required capabilities:

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

Appraise

Maturity of required capabilities:

Absent:
- Develop conflict-free partial designs.

Organizational:
- Develop an integral design.

Advice for tunnel design

Route

Directions for competency development of required capabilities:

Apply focus:
- Develop conflict-free partial designs.

Unite

Formation of unique capabilities out of required capabilities:

Develop a conflict-free part of an integral design:
- Develop an integral design.
- Develop conflict-free partial designs.

Secure

Organizational design:

System. Define a formal meta-model of integral designs.
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.
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:
- Develop a conflict-free part of an integral design.
- Manage the formal meta-model of integral designs.
- Manage the digital repository of integral designs.

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

Feb

2020

Plant redesign

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 all designers in this stage has not been successful. Since the expertise required is largely unique, hiring is not an option.

Ambition

Objective. Reduce the key-man risk in the stage of conceptual design.

Benefits. More designers master the stage of conceptual design and onboarding them in this stage takes less time.

Analysis. Worth pursuing.

Assessment of plant redesign

Identify

Required capabilities to produce a conceptual design:

Deliver design service:
- Estimate the required effort [implicit].
- Determine the process flow [implicit].
- Appraise customer traits [explicit].
- Analyse the impact of a concept [explicit].
- Display commercial acumen [tacit and innate].

Compare

Ranking of required 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

Maturity of required capabilities:

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

Advice for plant redesign

Route

Directions for competency development of required capabilities:

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

Unite

Formation of unique capabilities from required capabilities:

Produce a winning conceptual design:
- Estimate the required effort.
- Determine the process flow.
- Appraise customer traits.
- Analyse the impact of a concept.
- Display commercial acumen.

Secure

Organizational design:

System. Include as instructions in the standard operating procedure:
- Appraise customer traits.
- Analyse the impact of a concept.
System. Elicit and include as instructions in the standard operating procedure:
- Estimate the required effort.
- Determine the process flow.
System. Circumscribe and/or illustrate and include as preconditions in the standard operating procedure:
- 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

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. Lesser accessibility of the knowledge of senior designers leads to more time and effort to resolve a design issue.

Ambition

Objective. Reduce the effort of designers needed to design a series aircraft.

Benefits. Less design effort and lower design costs.

Analysis. Worth pursuing.

Assessment of aircraft design

Identify

Required capabilities to design a series aircraft:

Deliver 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

Ranking of required 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

Maturity of required capabilities:

Group:
- 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:
- Design a new aircraft in an existing series.

Advice for aircraft design

Route

Directions for competency development of required capabilities:

Apply focus:
- 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.

Unite

Formation of unique capabilities from required capabilities:

Design a new aircraft in an existing series using the design rationale of another aircraft in the same 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.

Secure

Organizational design:

System. Elicit and include as instructions in the standard operating procedure:
- 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 design knowledge to accomplish design work

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 design knowledge exist that a team needs to accomplish design work.

Sorts of design knowledge

A team’s organization consists of the following sorts of design 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 designers approach design.
Specialisms: fields of specialization of designers.
Skills: talents and abilities of designers.
Shared values: accepted values, norms, and standards for designing.

7 sorts of design knowledge

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 may be hard to distinguish. For instance, a design team may define style as the processes and procedures the team members have agreed to follow. In such cases, you may conveniently combine the two sorts into one sort, System.

Framework for design knowledge

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

Analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a design team.
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 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. Those that are successful display curiosity, creativity, and commitment to change. And more often than not, design drives the success of these enterprises, companies, and institutions:

Revenues and profit. Revenues 20 times, profit 4 times, and exports 5 times more (Design Council, 2012).
Stakeholder value. Twice as much return as the S&P 500 index (Design Management Institute, 2015).
Business performance. Double growth compared to 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 grow design in value, impact, and performance and turn it into a strategic advantage.