Organizational Attributes of IDEO

Organizational Attributes of IDEO Sharan Prasad Khanal BN171071 BUS 540, Organizational Behavior Professor Chuo / Gurulakshmi D. Hait Westcliff University 19th November 2017 Abstract This paper will be presenting on the organizational attributes of one of the topmost designing company, IDEO. The basis to identify the attributes is the video presented by ABC Nightline detailing on How IDEO was given a task to redesign the shopping cart within 5 days. IDEO attributes for its success are their organizational culture and behavior, their focusing ability, group discussion and decision making, team involvement and various skills, etc. The paper will be briefly explaining attributes relating them with IDEO’s success story. Keywords: manufactural, brainstorm, cart, matrix, prototype, checkout  Organizational Attributes of IDEO IDEO, a global design company established in 1991, is a community of designers, entrepreneurs, engineers, teachers and researchers sharing values with each other to produce positive impacts with designs. IDEO has been at the forefront of designing companies mainly due to innovation, creativity, teamwork and technology. From designing first manufactural mouse for Apple to designing toothbrush, IDEO has made remarkable breakthrough. The founder of IDEO, David M. Kelly and his colleagues defines work as a play, brainstorming as a science and rules as a method of breaking rules. ABC nightline prepared a video about IDEO work process asking them to redesign an innovative shopping cart in 5 days naming it as a “The Deep Dive” (ABC News, 1999). In the video presented by ABC News, it shows how the task was given to IDEO team and how they completed the task in given time frame resulting in effective and innovative shopping cart. On designing the cart, they mainly focused on safety for kids, modularity while shopping, easy handling, facilitated checkout and innovation. To complete and design such product in short period of time is not an easy task. There might have been certain processes that helped them to achieve the task. The culture of organization, team involvement and diversification, effective brainstorming, rapid prototyping and focusing on the target are factors which encouraged them to redesign the innovative product. The Culture of IDEO One of the major factors in organization which determines the effectiveness of the organization is the working environment trend known as organization culture. “We are what we repeatedly do” like Aristotle have stated, organization culture is the pattern of behaviors which is observable and consistent (Watkins, 2013). IDEO’s working culture demonstrates that employees are fully responsible to design their own working areas. They have the ability work and cope with different types of people under same level. The team leader is chosen not on the basis of seniority or experience but on the basis of ability to play with the team. There is no hierarchy among the roles as the organization culture is to work in matrix organizational structure. Matrix structure in the team member emphasizes on communication, flexibility, specialization and coordination (Guzman, 2010). As more collaboration and communication can be observed in this organizational structure, IDEO’s performance resulted in higher efficiency and effectiveness focusing on innovative product. Team Involvement and Diversification From the video, it is observed that team formed for the product redesign is in such a way that every member had equal responsibilities and showed active participation. The team was formed with highly skilled people from different areas who were engineers, biologist, linguist, marketing expert, psychologist, etc. This shows diversification in the team members. Diverse team is always regarded as smarter as members from different backgrounds can change the group thinking resulting in more accurate and improved decisions (Rock & Grant, 2016). As team members of IDEO for redesigning the shopping cart was from different background it definitely helped to make effective decision and plan. Brainstorming Brainstorming can be regarded as a group discussion to find the solutions and make decision to the identified problem. William Starbuck, the professor at University of Oregon, has stated that decision making is the end of brainstorming for the solutions, followed by the start of the actions (Buchanan & O'Connell, 2006). This shows that brainstorming is required to point out the problem, find solution and to decide to implement. From the video of IDEO, it can be observed how team members were presenting their ideas and feedbacks and having discussion. One of the key factors for the innovative design involving multiple facilities in the shopping cart is the result of brainstorming. Rapid Prototyping Creating a full scale model that represent the final product as a whole or a part in short period of time with speed is known as rapid prototyping. This practice is usually applicable to the projects having short deadline time period. As IDEO was given a period of 5 days to redesign the shopping cart, rapid prototyping was applicable to them. Prototype gives the vision of the product being going to be designed and developed. The end users can provide feedbacks on the prototype being developed and changes can be incorporated accordingly (Martin, 2014). IDEO developed 4 mockups as a prototype initially and later after demonstration they focused on combining all four mockups to develop the combined and innovative one. Focus Focusing on goals and objectives to meet the target is one of the essential parts while working in the organization. It is required to focus on the right amount of attention to know what are the goals, objectives, acts, behaviors and business (Childs, 2017). “One conversation at a time, Stay focused on topic”, this saying on the board of IDEO’s work place demonstrates how they emphasized on focusing on the subject matter. Without having focus, it’s difficult to achieve the planned success and achieve innovation.  Conclusion The story behind the success of IDEO is determined by various factors such as culture of the organization, active participation of team members and diversification in the skills among team members, continuous brain storming and sharing ideas, focusing on objectives and goals and modelling the vision. Organization culture demonstrates the behavior and the success rate of the organization. The advantage of having diverse in team members is many ideas are gathered from different perspectives and can be focused and brainstormed to build a prototype that represent the model of the final product. Following these characteristics of IDEO, any company can make a big difference in their business getting global recognition with their innovative products.  References ABC News. (1999). The Deep Dive. Retrieved from ABC News Home Video of Nightline. Buchanan, L., & O'Connell, A. (2006, January). A Brief History of Decision Making. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2006/01/a-brief-history-of-decision-making Childs, S. (2017, October 31). Why Organizations Need To Focus On Culture First. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2017/10/31/why-organizations-need-to-focus-on-culture-first/#19034f8c582a Guzman, O. (2010, June 4). The Advantages of Matrix Organizational Structure. Retrieved from Small Business: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-matrix-organizational-structure-286.html Martin, R. L. (2014, February 11). The Unexpected Benefits of Rapid Prototyping. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2014/02/intervention-design-building-the-business-partners-confidence Rock, D., & Grant, H. (2016, November 04). Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter Watkins, M. D. (2013, May 15). What Is Organizational Culture? And Why Should We Care? Retrieved October 9, 2017, from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2013/05/what-is-organizational-culture Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES OF IDEO ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES OF IDEO 7