Managing Organizational Changes and Polarities

Stephanie Gioia is a founder at Future Work Design with a focus on strategic planning and organizational innovation. She also serves as the director of the Either/Org project and teaches human-centered design for organizational innovation at the University of Oregon's Executive MBA program. She’s taught at Stanford’s d.school, University of Michigan, and Pacific Northwest College of Art. She is the founder of deckaholic.com, the world's largest library of card decks for problem solving and creativity. We talk about organizational design and strategy, and helping organizations navigate change.

Listen to learn about:>> Organizational design >> Either/Org’s Inspiration Library for organizations >> Prototyping organizational changes >> Navigating and de-risking change Our GuestStephanie Gioia (she/her) is a founding partner at Future Work Design with a focus on strategic planning and organizational innovation. Stephanie was one of the earliest strategists to use the power of Human Centered Design to solve organizational design challenges. Stephanie also serves as director of The Either/Org Project, an organizational design inspiration lab. This project vibrates all her interests: organization design, practical tool-making, learning and inspiration, and a firm belief that we can change the whole world by changing the world of work.

Stephanie teaches Human Centered Design for Organizational Innovation at University of Oregon’s Executive MBA program. In the past she has taught programs at Stanford’s d.school, University of Michigan, and Pacific Northwest College of Art. She is the founder of www.deckaholic.com, the world's largest library of card decks for problem solving and creativity.

Stephanie holds an MBA from the University of Michigan in Strategy and Organizational Sensemaking and earned her B.A. in History and Government from Georgetown University. She lives in beautiful Klickitat country (White Salmon, WA) with her partner Dave and is a mom to two fantastic kids. Show Highlights [01:59] Stephanie’s interest in organizational life led her to taking jobs in large organizations to see how they functioned. [02:40] How can we make organizations operate better and be a better experience for employees? [03:16] Getting an MBA in strategy and organizational sense making. [03:52] Deciding to use design thinking to prototype and design better workplaces. [04:55] Her time at IDEO. [05:25] Co-founding Future Work Design. [06:22] Working with clients at Future Work Design. [07:54] Using Future Work Design’s Wayfinder card deck to help a team align and start working together. [11:05] Helping clients get comfortable with ambiguity. [11:23] Stephanie offers an example of a client project focused on reimagining how the client might make decisions better aligned with their core values. [16:23] Reclaiming the “design” part of organizational design. [20:18] The Either/Org’s inspiration library for organizations looking to innovate. [22:57] Visualizing an organization beyond the org chart. [23:57] Organizational prototyping. [29:25] Helping organizations navigate and de-risk change. [32:11] A project for an international NGP that entailed changing their entire operating model. [34:07] Managing the expectations of change.

Links Stephanie on LinkedIn Stephanie on Medium Stephanie on Instagram Stephanie on YouTube Stephanie on UX Magazine Future Work Design either/org Deckaholic DT 101 Episodes

Civic Design + Innovation Ops + System Design with Ryann Hoffman — DT101 E62

Employee Experience by Design: How to Create an Effective EX for Competitive Advantage with Belinda Gannaway — DT101 E75

UX + Into, Through, and (Almost) Out of Design with Kara DeFrias — DT101 E103