Everyone please read “Design for Belonging”. One of the many wonderful Stanford d. School guides about how to build inclusion and collaboration in your communities.

Susie Wise’s book outlines the many areas where we often fail to appreciate where design could have an impact. For example:

Entering – how do we become part of something, are we invited? If so, how?

Participating – how does this happen?

Contributing – how do we contribute? How is this different from participating?

Dissent – are we permitted? If so, how does this happen?

Code Switching – What is it and does it happen in our org?

What are our design levers? For example, where could we potentially make a difference? Spaces, roles, events and rituals all play a part in our working environment, and they can all be improved upon in some way if we recognise that we all have a level of responsibility and a part to play.

But how do we make these things real? How do we move from well-meaning to well-doing with specific results and outcomes?  The often-quoted mantra here is to emphasise creating with over doing to. In this case Design Thinking and Lego Serious Play both have a significant part to play, but too much planning and workshopping up isn’t always a good idea [as we all know].

Maybe [just maybe] it’s a case of setting the right intention in the right space and asking the right question when everyone is sitting in front of a pile of random lego pieces and asking them to create something as a response.

Something like “Characterise what belonging means to you….” The rest will follow on [as long as we listen]

For more about this let’s talk in more detail, in the meantime look at Yohlar.com