Are you getting complaints from clients? Maybe you're not meeting your service level agreements? Are your staff or volunteers saying they aren't able to truly make a difference doing the job that they joined your organisation to do? Or are your clients asking for a service that you don't offer but that you really feel you should?
These are symptoms that most leaders experience at some time when leading an organisation. When leaders reach out to us with symptoms like this, it usually means there is something that needs to be improved with their current service model. Often it’s an organisation that has been around for some time and has a service that hasn't recently been reviewed or updated, or a service that was created with an internal focus rather than a client-focused approach in its design.
Client expectations are changing, your clients are expecting your organisation to be more transparent and they're expecting to feel like their needs are understood. And now more than ever, it's easier for them to tell other potential clients what their experience was like with your organisation, or find another service provider that will meet their needs.
So, what we're finding is that there's a change between the way that organisations used to work, where you would get a group of experts to create the solution, and a move towards a more 'person-centred approach', where services are designed from the clients perspective and the organisations perspective, rather than being designed purely from the perspective of the organisation. Organisations that are adopting this approach are getting better client satisfaction and organisational performance outcomes.
The best way to solve this problem is to use Co-design. Co-design is a simple 5 step - facilitated process, that brings ALL of the stakeholders of your service together, to firstly understand the needs of each stakeholder from their perspective, and then co-design new ways to solve their problems.
What you end up with is a balanced solution that meets the needs of all stakeholders, giving you the confidence that the changes you make to the service will improve client outcomes and the performance of the organisation. By bringing everyone together you are designing for what people really need, not what you think they might need, which can also be a more efficient use of time and resources in the long run.
To learn more, read a case study on how we used co-design to create two new services with an in-home aged care service provider, their clients and stakeholders, to create more dementia-friendly communities for CALD seniors. To read the case study click here.
Or if you would like to learn more about Co-design and how it is used in the social sector, then register to attend our regular free webinar here