We Should Apply Design Thinking to Avoid Rail Strikes
I’ve been thinking about the rail dispute / strikes scheduled for next week across the UK. Here are a few of my thoughts.
We need to take a holistic approach that looks at both staff concerns and how to improve service. At the moment, our rail service is a mess. Customers pay too much for a poor service. The whole rail network needs to be nationalised and we need to accept that subsidising it is necessary to help address climate change.
There needs to be massive investment and change. This needs to include faster and more comfortable trains, more driverless trains and in short, a complete rethink in how to provide improved customer experience taking full advantage of the technology available in the 21st century. Currently we are still making do with a service that was designed using 20th century technology and thinking. Rail staff would need to be part of this redesign process. Front line workers especially have understanding and expertise that could be applied to improve the service. Ultimately, I am saying that staff should not be paid more for proving the current poor service, instead they should be paid more for being part of a radically improved service.
To get there I suggest that we need to apply design thinking, service design, human centred design, user research and systems thinking. I see these as different parts of what is needed to improve service. My thinking is informed by a transport design project I’m working on at the moment. I outline more about how to address such complex problems in this blog post https://lnkd.in/eRBKCsXX
#designthinking#design#problemsolving#servicedesign#systemsthinking#userresearch#UX#raildispute #railstrikes
Published by Tim Woolliscroft AKA DigitalTIm
I am a consultant and academic with an interest in how digital technology could be used to transform the world for the better. I apply creativity with an understanding of business to help organisations overcome challenges with digital transformation. Professionally, my expertise has been developed through careers in the arts, in the voluntary sector and academia. Academically, I am a polymath with a broad social science background. I have five postgraduate qualifications in: digital business, leadership, education, research methods and sociology. My PhD crossed the boundaries of digital business and digital health, I explored how digital technologies might be applied to improve healthcare efficiency. I took a systems thinking approach to unlocking the innovation of participants to help understand the problem and potential solutions. My arts background gives me a plethora of creative techniques that can be applied to digital innovation. During my management and organisational development career, I applied my creative skills to innovative projects designed to address complex health and social challenges. In management and leadership roles I developed a wide range of strategy skills including team building and change management. The combination of my management experience, creative background and study of technology gives me a unique ability to help organisations re-imagine the future and their potential role in it. View all posts by Tim Woolliscroft AKA DigitalTIm
Originally published at http://digitaltim.uk on June 19, 2022.
