Alana Washington: Theme 1 Provocation- The Resilient Design Team of One

Resilience is the overarching theme for DesignOps 2020.

 

Typical definitions of resilience focus on getting back to pre-criss conditions quickly
  • For DesignOps,  the definition is being pushed a bit further (with less of a focus on inhumane ask to return folks to productivity, but helping orgs and people transform in real time in a positive and sustainable way
People need physical health for organizational health and creative health
The resilient design team of one lands at most atomic part of team: yourselves
  • Solo design ops team
  • Or even a literal team of one
Consider the practical implication of a team-of-one
  • Scale, organizational, avoiding burnout
  • Creativity begins with the individual and scales to the org as a whole
Alana then provides the follwoing provocations and thought-starters for each one of the attendees.

 

The Questions

 

#1: When do you need help, who do you go to in your network? Have you ever created a relationship map for who to go to help? Are there ways you can use your network to set yourself up for success in role?

 

#2: What small steps can team take to sustain well-being over time?

 

#3: What are your assumed greatest strengths? How do those strengths keep you from moving into spaces you’ve never been in before.

 

#4: If you had a magic wand, what would you do to create more safety for yourself?

 

#5: What are three recent examples of how you nurture creativity and resilience either for yourself, or for those you support?

 

#6: What does it mean to set your team up for success?

 

#7: How can we take to next level for maturity of design operations practice to be more resilient?

 

Alana will post provocations and thought-starter online so that they can be revisited, and encourage attendees to take the time to engage with the provocations, and see if the talks unlock something useful for you.