Bridges To Knowledge: A Blog by Barry Camson

Integrating Ecosystem and Value Chain Design in Sustainability Efforts, Revisited

How can one use the practice of design to implement sustainability approaches in organizations and in their surrounding ecosystems?

This is a daunting challenge especially with regard to ecosystems because the ecosystem of even a small polluter can be inhabitants of the entire planet or certainly a region of the globe.

One really needs to take a whole-earth perspective to fully comprehend this. This is vividly demonstrated in the recent "school-strike" catalyzed by Greta Thunberg of Sweden which involved 1.6 million young people in almost 1700 cities and towns in over 123 countries in every continent.

We do have to start somewhere in terms of organizations and one place to start is to gain a concept of the system with which we are dealing. This involves viewing the organization in terms of what may be a more linear, value-chain as well as seeing the organization as part of a larger ecosystem.

Adaptive Design For Collaborative Ecosystems

This article sets out a working description of a collaborative ecosystem in which value is co-created. It describes what needs to be attended to in the process of adaptive design for the ecosystem. It sets out a path forward in pursuing adaptive design for a collaborative ecosystem.

Are you an Ecosystem?

Being an ecosystem involves recognizing all those engaged in the co-creation of value and in ongoing relationships with one another constituting a larger network. This is qualitatively different from seeing your organization plus all of the business relationships it has with its different providers and stakeholders. It is different from seeing your customer or client as the recipient of the goods or services that you develop.

Creating Sustainable Value Chains

Taking a value chain approach is particularly helpful when addressing how to build in sustainability as an integral part of a large and complex organization. The overarching goal in such an effort is to make the entire organization as well as its ecosystem of suppliers and customers more sustainable. These approaches differ significantly from previous efforts of "greenwashing" the organization or creating a separate sustainability function divorced from the daily life of the organization. The current recognition reflects the importance of making sustainability part of the daily mission and work of each person in the organization.

This post sets out the steps that can be used to accomplish this.

These steps are derived from two Harvard and Stanford business cases, dealing with Unilever and Walmart respectively. The steps tend to be iterative and will apply differently depending on specific conditions.

 

 

Designing The Customer Journey In The Ecosystem

 

The world in which we provide products and services is rapidly changing as are the needs of the customers who are served. Frequently, a pressing customer need cannot be met by one specific entity at one specific point in time. The needs that customers manifest are no longer able to be reduced to a single voiced statement. We speak now of the customer journey. I see this journey as taking place within an ecosystem of multiple, diverse providers often linked together in networks. The contemporary challenge for designing how we do business or provide constituent services is to arrive at solutions that match this environment.

Several decades ago as we sought to improve our organizations, an important revelation was about the value of building in the needs of the customer to the design process. This endeavoring to hear "the voice of the customer" was largely due to the impact of Deming and the Quality Movement. We responded by conducting interviews or focus groups with customers or conducting environmental scans. The resulting key points were factored in among drivers of the design. Focusing on this voice of the customer was often a revelatory moment for clients.

We are now in the midst of taking another paradigm-shaking step in how the customer drives design. This is more complicated than simply "listening" to the customer and as such this new paradigm mirrors the character of our larger society. The step we are embarking upon is to consider the customer journey and the customer experience.

The customer journey is the process of putting oneself inside the context of the customer. This is to learn not just what the customer says directly that they need but to also learn about all of the pressures, influences, people, surrounding culture and environment that impacts what the customer needs. It is literally to be with them as they access and make use of your product or service. It is to "walk a mile in his or her shoes."

Dealing with the bureaucracy of a healthcare system in many places is an example of this. If one were travelling on a journey with the customer, in this case a patient, one would stop with the customer at a medical office and hear from one medical provider that the customer needs to see another kind of provider. One would be with the customer as the customer makes an appointment to see that second provider. One might wait along with the customer through various telephone voice prompts to secure the appointment. One would go with the customer to see the next provider and hear along with the customer that, in fact, the customer needed a different kind of provider and not the one in whose office the customer currently sat. Or, perhaps that the customer was lacking the proper forms and needed to return on another day. One would hear the exasperation of the customer as they vented to significant others and exclaimed, "if only there were a single point of contact that had all of the relevant knowledge that I could easily access and understand."

This reflects a customer journey that was not a particularly satisfactory experience for the customer. Some journeys are more pleasant and successful than others. As one can conclude, the fix is not necessarily a simple one involving a single organization though at any single point on this journey the interaction or process could be improved.

Understanding the customer journey provides a far deeper perspective on the situation of the customer than just hearing the customer's voice. One is able to understand all of the nuances of the customer's needs at various points in time. One understands that meeting these needs involves multiple parties - doctors, nurses, administrators and even the people in the customer's support system. It involves multiple organizations - hospitals, medical practices, HMO's.

This journey reflects that our world has moved far beyond the friendly family doctor who used to make timely house calls to a given patient and who usually resolved most of the issues on the spot. Ironically, those of us who remember the house call from the family doctor remember it as a positive experience.

We now live in a complex world and within complex networks. The journey of the customer takes place in a larger ecosystem. The ecosystem of the customer is an environment rich with organizations and networks many of which may be relevant to the customer's needs.

Unlike in past days when simply fixing the problems in the process would be sufficient to secure the ongoing business of the customer, we now live in a world where the customer expects more. The customer, thanks to Steve Jobs, has learned to expect a highly positive experience that extends beyond the specific service or product being provided. Life is no longer just a cup of coffee. It is Starbucks. Our process of design needs to be focused on the customer journey and experience and all those who in one way or another impact it. In doing so, we will be engaging in ecosystem design.

The Polysemous Organization

The organization or political jurisdiction of the Newtonian age and the following Industrial Age was one in which all could be reduced to a singularity.

The Newtonian world-view held that it is possible to arrive at a perfect, objective representation of the world outside us which in turn allows us to accurately predict all phenomena. In this mechanistic paradigm, one could attain simplicity, coherence and completeness. The Newtonian approach had a great influence on the scientific and organizational world for most of the next three hundred years. In this world, one finds predominant the idea of one meaning, one fixed structure of governance, one defined process and one person doing the governing.

It is shocking then to realize that Shakespeare who was writing a century before Newton does not at all subscribe to this singular view of reality. In creating a world where multiple, potential meanings abound, Shakespeare provides a guiding path to our own future.

Building A Networked Shared Society

Being in a network opens up the possibility of living with a number of different perspectives, world views, mental models - essentially a number of differing realities. At the same time, being in a network also carries with it the possibility of creating shared space among these many differing realities. The issue in a network is determining what exactly is shared and how much is shared.

Collective Impact, Trust and Sustainability

Building sustainable responses to complex societal needs is a major challenge in contemporary society. Collective Impact is a holistic approach for responding to a complex societal issue in which a wide variety of interested parties work together to address the many different aspects of the given issue. It is a powerful approach appropriate for dealing with many of a society's challenges. Developing trust is a major aspect of creating a sustainable effort.

Hebrew version of this article can be found here.  Download Hebrew version

Managing The Polarities Of Contact In A Network

Longer-term sustainability in a network is supported by managing the polarities of contact in the network. Specifically, I am focusing on the polarities of contracting and expansion. Each represents a different focus that needs to coexist in a larger network for that network to be ultimately effective and sustainable. I view these as akin to breathing which requires both a contracting and expansion phase.

Achieving Our Full Network Potential

"What would our network be like if we could achieve our full potential?"

Questions like these were at the core of a workshop that I recently attended that was given by Beth Tener. The workshop was about asking "strategic questions." A strategic question helps open up the person with whom you are speaking to new possibilities. A strategic question is characterized as being open-ended and positive. It asks the other person to look beyond the "shoulds" in their life to explore how a desired state could be attained. A question might be: "what would it take in order for you to attain what you are looking for?" Asking such a question also helps the questioner to have an experience as a positive, possibility-seeking person.

Value Propositions In Networks

We are learning that networks as a means of conducting business or creating social change cannot be treated like our traditional "bricks and mortar" organizations. This is true for both networks made up of individuals and those composed of member organizations. It is important to understand how networks differ from traditional organizations. This, in turn, leads us to changing the way we respond to networks in our efforts to help develop and improve them. Thinking of networks in terms of their value propositions can be very helpful in working effectively with networks.