Recently I finished reading the thesis of Elli Verhulst, who gained a doctors degree in product development with her research ‘The human side of sustainable design implementation from the perspective of change management.’ This gave me some interesting insights, which I would like to share with you.
“The study focused on the understanding of the human factors that occur and influence the implementation of sustainable design in practice. The knowledge on change management is thereby applied.” [p279]
Firstly I will give you an understanding what is meant by change management.
“Change management as a discipline studies that process of organisational, planned change in several situations, but mainly in organisational change. The aim of change management is to administer planned change that occurs in organisations, thus on a micro-level, in order to maximise the collective benefits for all people involved and to minimise risks and failures that the implementation of these changes might imply.” [p4]
“The study focused on the understanding of the human factors that occur and influence the implementation of sustainable design in practice. The knowledge on change management is thereby applied.” [p279]
Firstly I will give you an understanding what is meant by change management.
“Change management as a discipline studies that process of organisational, planned change in several situations, but mainly in organisational change. The aim of change management is to administer planned change that occurs in organisations, thus on a micro-level, in order to maximise the collective benefits for all people involved and to minimise risks and failures that the implementation of these changes might imply.” [p4]
“The results from this study (the thesis of Elli Verhulst) indicate that the implementation process of sustainable design can be studied and addressed in a similar sense as other change processes”[p264] Although “sustainability as the subject of the change process comes forward in the study as a knowledge intensive concept that needs extensive attention on information gathering, measurement systems, knowledge sharing and spreading,(…) the majority of the influencing factors indicated are not related to the subject of sustainability criteria itself, but rather to the effects the changes bring to the employees’ work and work environment.” [p265]
That brings me to my second insight: A lot of effort is put into tools and methodologies for sustainable design, but not on the (soft) human factors. And here we can learn a lot from change management.
“In the field of change management, the link between the content of the change and the context is much stronger, whereby tools are available that offer support on the process steps, as well as many tools that focus on contextual factors that can influence the process on an individual, organisational or environmental level (de Caluwé and Vermaak, 2006)” [p66]
In table 4.7 and 7.11 you can see the success factors and obstacles that occurred during the research of Elli Verhulst. As you can see a lot of these factors are not related to the subject of the change, but rather the change itself.
That brings me to my second insight: A lot of effort is put into tools and methodologies for sustainable design, but not on the (soft) human factors. And here we can learn a lot from change management.
“In the field of change management, the link between the content of the change and the context is much stronger, whereby tools are available that offer support on the process steps, as well as many tools that focus on contextual factors that can influence the process on an individual, organisational or environmental level (de Caluwé and Vermaak, 2006)” [p66]
In table 4.7 and 7.11 you can see the success factors and obstacles that occurred during the research of Elli Verhulst. As you can see a lot of these factors are not related to the subject of the change, but rather the change itself.
A main obstacle is the resistance against change. This occurs in each change process and so it does with implementing sustainability in a design process. This is the same for fear, which is another factor that appears several times, although for different reasons, e.g. fear of failure, fear of the unknown, fear for a poor outcome, or fear of losing the current job status. “But there were also other factors of resistance that were indicated as ” directly linked to the subject of sustainability, such as its intangible nature, the complexity of sustainability as a concept, feeling uncomfortable on the new subject and new knowledge and data that need to be gathered by the firms.” [p248]
Another interesting finding is the way sustainability is implemented in the company. From a change management perspective you mostly start with a strategy and then set out a planning. With sustainable design it turned out companies mostly start with one or more independent projects (often a pilot project), which leads to the development of a vision, mission and general strategy ones the pilot project is finished.
This “implies that a product development department can take the opportunity to initiate the integration of sustainability criteria in product development in the form of independent projects and/or a strategy for sustainable design. However, in order to bring sustainability to a higher, broader level within the firm,(…) a clear vision, mission, strategy and planning, need to be further developed on a general level and need to be supported by the top management before a broader and permanent integration of sustainability criteria in product development and in the firm are to take place successfully.” [p201]
You can read about how to implement the insights in your work in the next article.
Another interesting finding is the way sustainability is implemented in the company. From a change management perspective you mostly start with a strategy and then set out a planning. With sustainable design it turned out companies mostly start with one or more independent projects (often a pilot project), which leads to the development of a vision, mission and general strategy ones the pilot project is finished.
This “implies that a product development department can take the opportunity to initiate the integration of sustainability criteria in product development in the form of independent projects and/or a strategy for sustainable design. However, in order to bring sustainability to a higher, broader level within the firm,(…) a clear vision, mission, strategy and planning, need to be further developed on a general level and need to be supported by the top management before a broader and permanent integration of sustainability criteria in product development and in the firm are to take place successfully.” [p201]
You can read about how to implement the insights in your work in the next article.
Summarized from the thesis:
The human side of sustainable design implementation from the perspective of change management, Elli Verhulst, 2012
Elli Verhulst is sustainable innovation consultant at shiftN and lecturer in (sustainable) product design at the Faculty of Design Sciences (i.o.), Artesis University College/University of Antwerp
Contact:
[email protected]
www.shiftn.com and www.artesis.be/productontwikkeling
The human side of sustainable design implementation from the perspective of change management, Elli Verhulst, 2012
Elli Verhulst is sustainable innovation consultant at shiftN and lecturer in (sustainable) product design at the Faculty of Design Sciences (i.o.), Artesis University College/University of Antwerp
Contact:
[email protected]
www.shiftn.com and www.artesis.be/productontwikkeling