Course on Human Centered Design ΩMEGA Team, Athens, 2016

Challenge :

“FAST TO WORK”

How to help newcomers in ESIF management

positions to get fast in their team’s workflow.

The team

Managing Authority

LLL Expert

Team Coordinator

Central ESF Authority

The context • The ESIF management in GR is organized in a system of more than 50

special services, spread in 13 Regions, 10 Ministries and agencies involved. The system is staffed with more than 2.500 seconded employees .

• Working at ESIF requires a great deal of competencies& team work. There are is a significant variety in job descriptions( different EU legislative framework applied, different policy context, different internal processes and organizational habits), making hard for newcomers to get quickly in pace with the rest of the team. They often suffer stress, frustration and isolation, harming the productivity of the system.

• A new Ministerial Decision, enforcing higher mobility to the system is putting additional pressure for re-arrangement of the personnel and faster learning. Increased learning needs is not satisfied by existing infrastructure. Moreover, the essential need of the newcomer to understand Organisational values and local professional habits is answered only with the short initial briefing of the supervisor and then – the learning effect of trial and error.

The problem

How can we help employees entering an ESIF management unit to get fast and smoothly into the work-stream of their position and their team’s assignments?

The method

Inspiration

Research

Synthesis Prototypi

ng

Iterating

Create Personas Plan Interviews Collect Insights

Cluster insights Find opportunities for design

Form the Team Define the Challenge

Elli

PERSONALITY Disable to transfer Quite able to transfer

knowledge Isolated Fully Networked

Introversial and Extroversial and charismatic

Fully suspicious Open and trustful

EXPERIENCE Beginner Advanced

Seeks direction and guidance Self learner

First timer Frequent mover

RELATION TO MYSELF Insecure Empowered

Amotivated Highly Motivated

DEMOGRAPHICS

Age 38 Profession Lawyer Location ESIF Central

Coordination Service Archetype The lonely rider

Elli is a young highly ambitious lawyer, charismatic and confident, but unwilling to share with teammates. Divorced, recently seconded at a Central Agency. Fears to be surpassed in promotions and constantly seeks recognition. Dislikes changes and despises every attempt for questioning an established rule or practice. To her everything is black or white and people are bad until proved to be good.

John PERSONALITY

Disable to transfer Quite able to transfer knowledge

Isolated Fully Networked

Introversial Extroversial and charismatic

Fully suspicious Open and trustful

EXPERIENCE Beginner Advanced

Seeks direction and guidance Self learner

First timer Frequent mover

RELATION TO MYSELF Insecure Empowered

Amotivated Highly Motivated

DEMOGRAPHICS

Age 43

Profession IT Expert

Location Regional Authority

Archetype King of the Net

John is a network manager , working for the past 15 years in 2 Man. Authroities . He is very confident and likes to work alone. Rarely meets people and enjoys self-learning. His moto is “ Job is best done in solitude”. Irony and contempt for IT-illiterates is his usual communication style. Not married, with frequent change of girl-friend, he claims his freedom is sacred.

Manos PERSONALITY

Disable to transfer Quite able to transfer knowledge

Isolated Fully Networked

Introversial Extroversial and charismatic

Fully suspicious Open and trustful

EXPERIENCE Beginner Advanced

Seeks direction and guidance Self learner

First timer Frequent mover

RELATION TO MYSELF Insecure Empowered

Amotivated Highly Motivated

DEMOGRAPHICS

Age 38

Profession Public Management

Location Managing Authority

Archetype Lost in space

Manos is a desk officer, recently moved in Management Authority after several attempts. Father of two suns, new in the ESIF area. Avoids tasks where he will work alone and seeks instructions only from hierarchy, trusting no one else. Remarkable ability to self-navigate in new technology and adapt. He is internally motivated by his own need to master in his job. Fears rejection and feels an alien in his working environment.

Christina PERSONALITY

Disable to transfer Quite able to transfer knowledge

Isolated Fully Networked

Introversial Extroversial and charismatic

Fully suspicious Open and trustful

EXPERIENCE Beginner Advanced

Seeks direction and guidance Self learner

First timer Frequent mover

RELATION TO MYSELF Insecure Empowered

Amotivated Highly Motivated

DEMOGRAPHICS

Age 50

Profession Economist

Location Managing Authority

Archetype Mrs Relaxed

Christina, comes from Thesaloniki, mother of a 25 year old daughter, works as a desk officer, recently moved in Control Unit after several appointments. She knows everybody , but has not been involved in audits before. Christina is everybody’s favorite and has no difficulty with making new friends. For her family, friends, hobbies, politics, fashion and sports come first and work follows. Staying behind in knowledge and failing to perform is simply not her problem.

zoe PERSONALITY

Disable to transfer Quite able to transfer knowledge

Isolated Fully Networked

Introversial Extroversial and charismatic

Fully suspicious Open and trustful

EXPERIENCE Beginner Advanced

Seeks direction and guidance Self learner

First timer Frequent mover

RELATION TO MYSELF Insecure Empowered

Amotivated Highly Motivated

DEMOGRAPHICS

Age 55

Profession Social Sciences

Location Coordination Authority

Archetype Control freak

Zoe is a highly experienced employee with many competences. Her only aspiration is to progress in hierarchy, and moved to get a management position. Although she is polite with people, training or helping someone is “against her religion”. She demands to be recognized as senior expert, but avoids undertaking any challenge at all. Changing job description scares her to death and evokes hostile behavior towards team-mates and subordinates. Welcomes gossiping as it helps her to “know everything” at work.

Research designed

• Interview questions drafted

• Interviewees and experts identified

• Templates agreed

Interviews…

Synthesis…

Insight: The inclusion of a newcomer is a challenge for the team

Relations and trust in the team matter the most. The newcomer needs to

feel safe, wanted and welcome in the team. Teams need to view the

newcomer as an opportunity to increase capacity, bring new ideas. The

newcomer’s fast progress could be a team’s objective.

How might we create an

universal welcome kit, that helps teams to facilitate a

newcomer’s orientation,

explore new ideas and

collectively engage in his/her progress, adopting it as a team’s

objective?

Insight: The learning path works best when accommodates variety

Individualised approach in designing a learning path for the newcomer and

monitoring learning progress to match assignments is important for the fast

and smooth inclusion of the individual in the job routines. First month is

critical How might we

help managers & teams to design an

individualized learning path

that helps better matching of a

newcomer’s progress in learning and

in tasks & responsibilities assigned?

Insight: More synaptic channels can increase the learning capacity of the

system

Many people prefer non formal channels for their learning at new post and care

about others that are or will be in the same situation, willing to contribute to

shared sources for knowledge, support and mentoring .

How might we facilitate the

source-funding of a

non-formal prof. network, including Q&A web-based platform,

that help people to record and

share their learning (Q&A), to

connect thematically and find

answers to specific questions?

Designing a solution will take into consideration that….

• Adapting to a new position is mostly a relational and less cognitive issue

• Adapting to a new position is also a challenge for the team

• The first month after appointment is critical for smooth inclusion and opportunities.

• The solution should provide for variety and be team centered

“Aha” Moments Best

insights come from personas

(extremes)

Interviews are

journeys where one

should travel light!

Learning by doing is cool !

Learning in teams is awesome!

OR what we learned

from the HCD course experience