By Leigh Cook and Carol Massa
As Sparks Grove continues our journey as catalysts for change in our industry and with our clients, our everyday work is constantly evolving. Experimentation is key in our business and culture, because it’s how we explore and iterate new ways of thinking and challenge ourselves to continually improve.
In our previous blog post about Human Experience (HX) we elaborated on our core HX design principles and how we create more human experiences:
These principles help us place humans at the center of every challenge we solve and every experience we create for customers, employees and communities. We derive significant value by designing for human experiences:
To demonstrate how we as a firm strive to bring human experiences to life, we recently designed and hosted an experiential event at one of our headquarter city’s cultural landmarks, the Atlanta History Center. Fittingly, the Center features an open, contemporary and approachable design which connects visitors with past, present, future and each other. Every aspect of the evening was crafted to elicit meaning, purpose and connection for attendees, and inspire them to think about advancing human experience within their own organizations and roles. Participants were given the opportunity to immerse in, and apply, our human experience principles by working their way through stations focused on meaning, purpose, connection.
Meaning - participants were invited to select which values matter to them and share their selections with others in the room in a visible way.
Purpose - participants uncovered their purpose through a digital quiz based on their selected values, which then determined their archetype from a broader set of archetypes created by our team for the event.
Connection - participants connected with each other, sharing values they chose, their archetypes and what human experience means for them personally.
The evening was capped with a panel discussion comprised of generous, energetic professionals and friends of Sparks Grove from various industries such as executive coaching to service design to a children’s museum. Participants asked questions and deepened their practical understanding of how to design and deliver human experiences in their own organizations. Several themes emerged from the dialogue, inspiring those in the room to think about what’s next in HX and how it can be integrated within their own work:
- How to execute HX internally
- How to build organizations that live and breathe HX
- How HX is a design-centric approach which goes beyond human-centered design, and also goes beyond other traditional disciplines to solve problems and create opportunity
Above all, this HX event brought to life two of the most important outcomes of successful experience design: insightful, authentic dialogue and meaningful, memorable interactions. It illustrated how experiences for each individual are highly influenced by personal context, culture and industry, which continues to inspire and energize us as we evolve our own thinking in designing solutions for employees, customers and communities.
If you'd like to learn more about HX and how it can evoke change in your organization, contact Leigh Cook at leigh.cook@sparksgrove.com