Becoming a Changemaker by Leading with Design
Summary
Design and research-driven leaders have evolved from being responsible for executing design concepts to having a crucial role in driving change across organizations. This is welcome progress, but with greater responsibility comes new challenges, especially when it comes to championing change in organizations likely to resist it. As design and research-driven changemakers have risen in the ranks of business, they’ve “learned on the job,” experiencing both setbacks and victories. We captured many of these learnings by interviewing over 40 design leaders and incorporating their shared wisdom in our book, Changemakers: How Leaders Can Design Change in an Insanely Complex World. Whether these leaders worked at IBM and Google, a US government agency, or a small consulting firm, their insights and observations are applicable to all and well-worth considering. This presentation will offer an overview of what we learned. It will cover the top mistakes changemakers make as they navigate the messy processes and people issues involved in driving any type of change. You'll learn how to determine the ground conditions needed for success, how to find and align supporters, how to minimize detractors, and how to repurpose design tools, frameworks, and techniques to your advantage. Maria Giudice is the co-author of Changemakers: How Leaders Can Design Change in an Insanely Complex World.
Key Insights
-
•
The role of design leaders has evolved from product delivery to shaping organizational culture at scale.
-
•
Changemakers must assess 'ground conditions' like executive support and resources before accepting leadership roles.
-
•
Rushing into change without understanding the organization's history and culture ('coming in too hot') often generates resistance.
-
•
Building a shared vision requires inclusive collaboration where all stakeholders feel heard and represented.
-
•
Prioritization and focus on a few small wins prevent burnout and enable sustainable change.
-
•
Tools like the impact matrix help teams evaluate effort versus impact to choose projects wisely.
-
•
Vision without execution is futile; delivering tangible outcomes with prototyping and milestones is essential.
-
•
Failure is inevitable in change leadership; embracing mistakes with courage leads to growth and innovation.
-
•
Visual communication techniques enhance stakeholder understanding and trust during complex change efforts.
-
•
Changemakers don’t necessarily need formal design training but must adopt design as a mindset and problem-solving strategy.
Notable Quotes
"The best future leaders will embody the qualities and traits of a DEO — design executive officer — creative business leaders at the intersection of design and business."
"Change is fundamentally a design problem and therefore change can be designed."
"Before you accept a mission as a changemaker, ask yourself do you have a clear directive, champion support, and the right resources?"
"Coming in too hot means running into a burning building like a firefighter, ignoring past work, and rushing without listening."
"Nobody wants to be told to do your thing unless it’s clear that it helps their thing. It’s just human nature."
"Don’t boil the ocean. Get small wins before you go for the big change."
"You need maniacal focus to prioritize, but remain flexible as priorities will always change."
"Vision without execution is hallucination. You must make outcomes tangible and measurable."
"Failure sucks and hurts, but if you haven’t failed, you haven’t taken enough risks."
"When you hit the bottom, that’s where creativity flourishes and it’s time to iterate, evolve, and redesign."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"In many cases, we don’t even know what the work is in design ops."
Kristin Skinner Kamdyn Moore8 Types of Measures in Design Operations
April 16, 2020
"I don’t come from a design background at all. It’s like my dirty secret."
Meredith Black Elyse HornbacherBuilding Community and Common Trends to Look for in 2021
December 17, 2020
"Human tasks will become more complex and multi-dimensional as simple tasks get automated."
Janaki KumarInnovate with Purpose
June 14, 2018
"We’re not going back to stability; we’re riding this wave of perpetual upheaval and must learn to surf it."
Robin BeersNavigating organizational systems: Rethinking researcher’s role in driving change
March 13, 2025
"How does the money we make align with our public sector values and make our organization the one we want to be?"
Chelsea MauldinLet's Talk About Money
November 17, 2022
"There is no silver bullet in system-level challenges; multiple interventions across different domains are needed."
Sheryl CababaExpanding Your Design Lens with Systems Thinking
February 23, 2023
"The plumbing of government—the unseen systems, processes, people, and policies—are design opportunities too."
Ed MullenDesigning the Unseen: Enabling Institutions to Build Public Trust
November 16, 2022
"With the Indigo.Design plugin, you can profoundly change how the whole design system looks by just tweaking primary or secondary colors."
George Abraham Stefan IvanovDesign Systems To-Go: Introducing a Starter Design System, and Indigo.Design Overview (Part 1)
September 30, 2021
"We want people to gain calibrated levels of trust, not overtrust or undertrust."
Carol SmithOperationalizing Responsible, Human-Centered AI
June 7, 2023
