Ibrar Hussain, founding architect of Vanguard Method, discusses applying systems thinking and service design for organizational change. Topics include leadership's role in driving improvements, addressing failure demand in financial services, and transforming mortgage operations to prioritize customer-centric approach. The podcast explores historical work organization concepts and emphasizes simplifying operations to align with customer feedback for optimal efficiency.
Vanguard Method focuses on combining systems thinking, occupational psychology, and leadership for sustainable change within organizations.
Vanguard Method illustrates the impact of failure demands and the shift towards addressing underlying customer needs to reduce inefficiencies.
Vanguard Method emphasizes empowering teams, re-educating leaders, and promoting customer-centered design for self-sufficiency and innovation.
Deep dives
Introduction to the Vanguard Method and Systems Thinking
The Vanguard Method combines systems thinking with occupational psychology to address performance issues driven by organizational systems. By identifying the relationship between performance, system design, and leadership thinking, Vanguard aims to instigate sustainable change within organizations by shifting the focus from tasks to value demands.
Addressing Failure Demand in Call Centers
Vanguard Method highlights the concept of failure demands caused by system inefficiencies and the mismanagement of value demands. Through an example with a bank's call center, where customers were demanding 'amount owing' information due to other underlying needs like mortgage rate adjustments, Vanguard redirected focus to solve customer problems directly, reducing failure demand from 35% to zero in weeks.
Transitioning Towards Sustainable Change
Vanguard emphasizes self-sufficiency, changing based on knowledge, and leadership commitment to facilitate lasting organizational improvements. By re-educating leaders on effective thinking patterns and empowering teams to innovate within their systems, Vanguard enables organizations to transition from traditional work structures to value-centric, customer-focused approaches.
Promoting Team Self-Sufficiency and Co-creation
Engaging leaders in co-creating solutions based on empirical data and guided by normative redesign, Vanguard enables teams to evolve autonomously and iterate rapidly towards customer-centric outcomes. By fostering cross-functional collaboration and removing legacy constraints, organizations can drive self-sufficiency and innovation.
Visualizing Workflows and Enabling Customer-Centricity
Vanguard's approach includes visualizing workflows, identifying and removing systemic failures, and promoting customer-centered design to enhance performance. By dismantling standardized, specialized, and centralized work structures and reintegrating only customer-relevant activities, organizations can align work processes with customer needs effectively.
Join Murray Robinson and Shane Gibson as they discuss the Vanguard method with Ibbi Hussain, one of the founding architects of this revolutionary approach to organisation change. Ibi describes how the Vanguard method uses systems thinking, service design, and occupational psychology to make profound improvements to call center performance. Join us as we navigate through the philosophy of change, the importance of leadership. And practical insights into implementing sustainable improvement within organisations.
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