Summary
By focusing on key operational concerns like methodology, tooling, design systems, org models, and business rationale, DesignOps helps evolving design orgs succeed at their core purpose: Making the Experience. But there’s an important and sometimes overlooked flip-side to that operational coin: The Experience of Making. How do you keep teams inspired, engaged, and intrinsically motivated to deliver meaningful, resonant, innovative work? Miles Orkin, UX Vision and Culture lead for Google Cloud, will describe (and maybe even demonstrate) some key ingredients for cultivating culture.
Key Insights
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Fun at work is essential for engagement but requires genuine and thoughtful integration beyond superficial activities.
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The traditional split between consumer and enterprise design is semantically misleading; enterprise design should be seen as empowering creators.
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Authenticity in organizational culture cannot be taught through training; it must emerge organically through emotional connection and grassroots efforts.
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Emotions at work span a full spectrum, including difficult feelings, and acknowledging all of them is necessary for true psychological safety.
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Compassion, not just empathy, is key for team members to support one another effectively.
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Culture impacts creativity by acting as fertile soil; intentional cultivation is needed but should avoid rigid processes.
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Small, thoughtful emotional actions at work build the fabric of culture more effectively than large programs.
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Design thinking should be reframed as designing how we think collectively to foster a shared culture.
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Emotional intelligence development includes reflecting on missed opportunities to engage on difficult feelings and learning to act differently next time.
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Leaders' authenticity and the ability for employees to feel ownership of mission and purpose deeply influence cultural health.
Notable Quotes
"If you want to have kick-ass teams, you have to think about the experience of making, how people feel when they get to work."
"Culture is messy. It’s a big mess. And you have to work at it."
"You can’t feel joy if you can’t feel pain. You can’t feel love if you can’t feel fear. And love is scary."
"People want to feel like their leaders are authentic and to have the opportunity to be their authentic selves at work."
"It’s so important to do the little emotional things; almost nothing is so much better than nothing."
"You can’t force culture on people. You have to let it grow, but be intentional about it."
"Culture is really like the soil for creativity."
"Compassion means not just being sorry but asking what can I do to help you."
"Design with a little D means everyone building experiences, not just those with the job title 'designer'."
"When people talk about 'bring yourself to work,' the emotional layer is crucial. It means feeling you could be yourself if needed."
Dig deeper—ask the Rosenbot:
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