Facilitation

Story 2: I want to join your team

In 2018 or so, we really started heavy on facilitating design-driven workshops across Eaton. With Crouse-Hinds on their new AR glasses for harsh and hazardous, with our Aerospace group in India to get the team up on some more collaborative working styles, with our HR team, with our Leadership cohorts to teach them facilitation methods and 'Design Thinking.' In the span of 2-3 years I ran dozens of design workshops, mostly because it seemed to really build communication between the people on the teams.

In engineering-driven cultures, there's nothing rewarded like single-handedly coming up with a snazzy solution. And to be honest it is quite cool. But there's a flip side to this, which is over-communication or collaborative prototyping tends to not get the same love.

In Milwaukee, I got a group of 9 electrical engineers developing the next line breaker (the thing on the telephone pole) together for one of these design sessions. We started from basics - Who are the people actually using this thing? As it turns out, 'Line Men' are responsible for switching these in an emergency, as well as maintenance and monitoring. The line breakers sit pretty high up, so traditionally they use a long stick to kind of interact with them unless they get a cherry picker or climb up.

We used cardboard to help model what these interactions might look like. We sketched out a mobile app ideas too to try and understand how these Line men could get a simpler view of their area.

The engineers hadn't worked like this together, ever. It didn't solve some of the deep technical issues in the brains of the device, but it did introduce them to a new way of communicating. And it led to some really cool breakthroughs that made it into the finished product. And most importantly, one of the younger engineers who couldn't get enough during the prototyping exercises, left with 'I want to join your team'.

I've since left Eaton, but last I heard she's still partnering with the Design Thinking team. (that's right, there's so much demand for this type of work there's now a whole group focused on facilitation and design strategy).