Service Design Show

Rewiring the Corporate Mind through Service Design / Perrin Rowland / Episode #184

Sep 14, 2023

Perrin Rowland, Chief Experience Design Officer at one of New Zealand's largest banks, discusses the challenges of rewiring organizational neural pathways for better customer service. He emphasizes the need to align design principles with organizational beliefs and practices. The podcast explores practical frameworks, tools, and a community program to prioritize customers. Building trust, creating value, and reshaping existing infrastructure are key to transforming organizations.

59:20

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Episode guests

Perrin Rowland

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Organizations need to rewire their neural pathways to become more customer-centric.

Building trust and collaboration is key to successfully implementing organizational change.

Mapping the customer journey and aligning it with the organization's processes can drive improvement and systemic change.

Deep dives

Creating Organizational Change through Rewiring Neural Pathways

The podcast episode discusses the need for organizations to rewire their neural pathways in order to put customers at the heart of their operations. Similar to how our brain works, organizations have learned beliefs, routines, and behaviors that need to be changed to prioritize customer needs. By creating new neural pathways within the organization, it becomes possible to shift the focus from internal processes to customer-centricity. This process involves mapping customer needs and aligning them with the organization's business architecture. By doing so, organizations can gain a better understanding of how different processes and departments contribute to the overall customer experience. Through initiatives such as surveying frontline teams and engaging with customers directly, trust can be built, and the organization can start to address areas that need improvement. Trust, collaboration, and a shared mental model are key elements in successfully rewiring organizational neural pathways.

Introduction

3min

Rewiring Organizational Neural Pathways and Communicating the Business Benefits of Service Design

3min

Join the Program and Take Your Service Design Career to the Next Level

1min

Baron's Journey to Becoming a Chief Experience Design Officer

3min

Getting to Know the Speaker

5min

Building New Neural Pathways within Organizations

28min

Building Trust and Creating Value

12min

Building Change on a Solid Foundation

3min

It's not a walk in the park... In fact, calling it challenging is a major understatement.

What we, as service design professionals, often need to tackle some could described as brain surgery. But I bet they didn't teach you that in service design school. They certainly didn't for me.

But why the analogy to brain surgery, you ask? According to our guest, Perrin Rowland, who serves as the Chief Experience Design Officer at one of New Zealand's largest banks, a significant part of our role involves rewiring the organizational neural pathways.

This rewiring is necessary because many established organizations lack the infrastructure needed to fully leverage the potential of design. It's simply not their modus operandi; it's not how they've reached their current status (quo).

Consequently, these organizations don't align with the core design principles, which leads to misaligned beliefs, behaviors, and practices. This misalignment often results in disappointment when design attempts to work its magic in an unprepared environment.

But here's the crux: we can, and indeed must, do better. Even if you don't encounter it daily, remember that those who benefit from our services rely on us to make them more human-centered.

So, how do we build the infrastructure necessary for organizations to prioritize their customers' needs as diligently as they do those of shareholders or regulators? With starting from scratch not being an option, we're left with the challenge of reshaping the existing foundation and pivoting from there.

Yes, it's tough work. And yes, sometimes it's okay to let off steam. It's all part of the journey. Tune in to this conversation with Perrin, and you'll get what I mean.

I must say that Perrin's energy in this conversation is absolutely contagious. If nothing else, you'll walk away with a renewed appreciation of the complexity of the role of service design and brain surgery.

Enjoy the episode, and as always, keep making a positive impact!

- Marc

--- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

00:00 Welcome to episode 184

10:15 Who is Perrin

13:45 Lightning Round

18:45 About the topic/book

21:15 Why we need to rewire the pathways

25:30 What's missing?

29:30 How to reframe this

34:15 How to make it work

38:15 Bottom-up approach and top-down initiative

42:15 Importance of having a taxonomy

45:00 How do you go about changing the processes

47:30 Does this convince them to make the investment

52:45 The value in trust

59:15 What's next?

1:00:15 Closing thoughts

--- [ 2. LINKS ] ---

https://www.linkedin.com/in/perrinrowland/

https://eagleman.com/books/livewired/

--- [ 3. Selling Service Design with Confidence ] ---

For more information and instructions on how to apply, head over to ⁠⁠https://www.servicedesignshow.com/confidence/

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Service Design Show

Rewiring the Corporate Mind through Service Design / Perrin Rowland / Episode #184

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Creating Organizational Change through Rewiring Neural Pathways

Building Trust by Showing, Not Telling

Mapping the Journey from Overview to Tangible Action

Navigating Challenges and Building Momentum

Looking Ahead: Operationalizing Change at Scale

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts