Maria Guidice, author of Changemakers: How Leaders Can Design Change in an Insanely Complex World, joins Erin May and Carol Guest in this episode of Awkward Silences. Together, they examine the qualities of effective change agents and discuss how designers, researchers, and passionate folks can hone and apply these qualities to drive change within their organization.
Throughout the episode, Maria draws on her experience leading global teams at Facebook and Autodesk and a decade of research into the interconnectedness of leadership, design, and change to offer practical advice on how to approach change through a designer mindset.
In this episode, Maria, Erin and Carol cover:
Highlights
00:04:23 – Design is about helping people make sense of the world
00:09:34 – Maria’s research into the connection between leadership, design, and change
00:13:50 – The importance of understanding people’s resistance to change
00:16:28 – What is a changemaker?
00:18:04 – Design as a noun, a verb, a mindset that can lead change at scale
00:24:30 – Qualities of effective change agents
00:33:19 – Why Maria hates the term “change management”
00:36:12 – Embracing failure as a learning opportunity
00:39:46 – The importance of passion, purpose, and a belief in continuous progress
About our guest
For three decades, creative teams and business leaders have sought the provocative vision and mentorship of Maria Giudice, GEW DEECE. After founding the pioneering experience design firm Hot Studio and leading global teams at Facebook and Autodesk, Maria’s mission today is to build the next generation of creative leaders.
Through one-on-one coaching, group coaching, and team-building workshops, Maria unlocks the potential hidden in executives and the people they lead. A popular speaker at design and business conferences, Maria is also the author of four design books, including Rise of the DEO: Leadership by Design, and most recently Changemakers: How Leaders Can Design Change in an Insanely Complex World.
#67 - Growing a UX Research Startup with Basel Fakhoury of User Interviews and Benjamin Humphrey of Dovetail
#66 - Agile Research Ops with Joey Encarnacion of Slack
#65 - The Best of Awkward Silences (So Far)
#64 - Civic Tech with Cyd Harrell
#63 - Information Architecture in UX with Page Laubheimer of NN/g
#62 - The State of User Research with Katryna Balboni
#61 - The Role of Research in CX Transformation with Kim Salazar of Nielsen Norman Group
#60 - Discovery Research and Interview Skills with Maria Rosala of Nielsen Norman Group
#59 - Ethical Hacking, Information Security, and UX with Ted Harrington of ISE
#58 - The Lone UXR: Being a UX Research Team of One with Izzy Nichols
#57 - Research Amid Sudden Change: Working on Google Classroom During COVID with Amanda Rosenburg
#56 - 2020, UXR Year In Review
#55 - So You Want to Be In Research Ops? How Roy Olende of Zapier Made The Switch
#54 - End-to-End Experience Teams with Danielle Smith of Express Scripts
#53 - Everything in Context: Anthropology and User Research with Vanessa Whatley
#52 - The Missing Ingredient: How Storytelling Makes User Research More Impactful with Harrison Wheeler of LinkedIn
#51 - Uncharted Territory: AI & User Research with Hana Nagel
#50 - To Manage or Not to Manage? UX Research Careers with Amber Davis, UXR Director at Audible
#49 - The Magic of Diary Studies with Tony Turner
#48 - Rising to the Moment: UXR, Diversity, & Inclusion with Randy Duke
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Insight Story: Tech Trends Unpacked
Zero-Shot
Fast Forward by Tomorrow Unlocked: Tech past, tech future
The Unbelivable Truth - Series 1 - 26 including specials and pilot
A Prairie Home Companion: News from Lake Wobegon