[TMA] Learning from Sports; The Double-Edged Double Diamond; and a Sneak Peek
From the sofa of Peter Merholz—
Learning Leadership from Sports
Chapter 3 of Org Design for Design Orgs opens with a light analysis of how the Golden State Warriors went from first-round-out in the playoffs to, the next season, being a championship team: new leadership (in the form of new head coach Steve Kerr). As a leadership dork, I appreciate how sports makes leadership lessons available to all, since it’s such a public, and broadly appreciated, endeavor.
I bring this up because recently, The Athletic provided further background on the importance of building culture in sports in this article: “Luka Doncic, Jimmy Butler, and the Culture Question: What So Many Leaders Underestimate.” (un-paywalled). It’s an excellent, accessible, and straightforward discussion on the role of leaders in establishing culture, and features this wisdom from psychological safety popularizer Amy Edmondson:
Edmondson believes every effective organization has three pillars:
A clear value proposition that states why the organization exists and what its purpose is. Harvard is a school that exists to educate future leaders.
A system to carry out that purpose (training programs and equipment, for example).
A defined culture.
“The culture is what allows us to deliver on that value proposition,” Edmondson said. “Because everybody understands what we do, how we do it, and they don’t need to be reinstructed every minute of the day. In a way, it’s a source of efficiency.”
For another pop culture take on teamwork and leadership, and if you can get past the physical and psychological trauma (it’s set in an hospital ER), I strongly recommend The Pitt on HBO/Max. It’s a masterclass on collaboration, communication, process, operations, emotional intelligence, and leadership.
The Double-edged Double Diamond
I have a lengthy relationship with the Double Diamond. Originally developed by the Design Council, I found it useful after leaving Adaptive Path, and needing to explain to my new in-house colleagues just what design involves. I created a surprisingly popular Slideshare about it (remember Slideshare?), and, more recently, have stated that it’s better thought of as a diagram of product development practice, not just design practice.
Recently, I found myself commenting on LinkedIn how the Double Diamond is both The Most Useful and The Least Understood model for explaining design.
Why do I say that? The Double Diamond is extremely useful in communicating to non-designers what’s at the heart of successful design practice: divergence (trying a bunch of things) and then convergence. It’s surprising how few other practices engage in this behavior. It also makes clear the necessary work of Definition, the thinking that happens before you engage in execution.
It’s The Least Understood because, unfortunately, many designers have taken this conceptual diagram of a practice and tried to turn it into a set of steps. To turn the Double Diamond into a ‘process,’ is to over-engineer the thinking behind it, and to suggest that, if you just follow these specific steps, you’ll be fine.
Migrating to Ghost—Sneak peek!
For those who have made it this far, and might just care, I’m in process of migrating my website (https://petermerholz.com/) and this newsletter to Ghost.
It’s not yet ready, but you can see it in progress. I offer it up both to spur me to see through the migration (I need to figure out some URL management), and for any helpful feedback. Subscribers won’t have to do anything — it’s easy to migrate you all to the new platform.
Thought Partnership—Leadership Advisory for you (or your boss?)
I will soon be broadly reminding folks of my Thought Partnership offering, where I work with heads of design (who have no one in their org to turn to), to help them with the hardest challenges they face in their job. It looks like coaching (1-hour sessions fortnightly or monthly), but acts like consulting (drawing from experience and expertise to accelerate decision-making). If this is of interest, just hit ‘reply’ and ket me know.