Is it possible to design organizations as if they were experiences – which, of course they are? Nathan Shedroff in his books Experience Design 1.1 and Experience Design 2 suggests that there are at least six dimensions to experiences:
- time/duration
- interactivity
- intensity
- breadth/consistency
- sensorial and cognitive triggers
- significance/meaning
At face value each of these could be consciously designed into an organization in relation to the business strategy and/or business model, and also into the various elements that comprise the organization. A series of questions could be asked around each of the dimensions
Take the time/duration dimension as an example. Questions relating to this include:
How long do we typically want the various levels of employees to stay with us?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of length of employement period?
Is a short stay with high performance better than a long stay with medium performance?
What do we anticipate the organization's longevity to be?
Is it a pop-up or are we in it for the long term? What is long-term?
Are we buying equipment to last or to be replaced?
What is the lifecycle of our products and services?
How long do we expect our policies and procedures to last? How often should we review them?
And so on. The list of questions for each of the six dimensions could be endless but yield rich thinking into how the organization should be designed or redesigned.
Naomi Stanford 