The Service Organization Demystified / Kate Tarling / Episode #181

Service Design Show

Imagine not just designing one service... But shaping your entire organization so that it keeps improving the services it offers, continuously. Yes, it's a much bigger challenge, yet the reward of creating a highly service-oriented organization is immeasurable.

But let's be real, redesigning an entire organization isn't a task for the faint-hearted. You're tinkering with an established system that has steered the company for years, propelling it to where it is today.

In my view, we don't have a real choice though. How much longer can we design services that eventually fall short of their potential due to organizational roadblocks? Continuing this way not only wastes time and money but also breeds frustration. Your hard work might not have the desired impact, causing doubt to loom over service design's legitimacy as a field with stakeholders.

They say that you eat an elephant one spoon at a time. In our context, if the elephant is the challenge of reshaping our organization to be more service-centric, where do you start?

Enter "The Service Organisation," a freshly published book. It's making waves in our community for a reason, and I couldn't resist inviting the author, Kate Tarling, to share her insights on the Show.

It turned into a great conversation about how decisions are made, funds allocated, and workflows orchestrated within an organization. If you're keen on doing good service design, at scale, this episode is your golden ticket.

For me, Kate's insights are once again a testament to the monumental effect seemingly simple actions can have.

Enjoy and keep making a positive impact :)

- Marc

--- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to episode 181 06:00 Who is Kate 07:00 Lightning Round 11:15 The reason behind the book 18:30 Leadership 19:45 Soccer Analogy 23:45 What the book centers on 25:00 Practice tools examples 28:00 Understanding the word "service" 30:45 Transforming the organization 34:15 The role responsible for funding 41:30 The Gap 44:30 What's missing 47:30 Why it's an integral part 49:30 Questions that rose 51:45 Examples of Operating Models 54:45 Closing Thoughts 56:30 Kate's Book --- [ 2. LINKS ] ---

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-tarling-6b43b19/
• The Service Organization by Kate Tarling (Kate's Book)
• Recoding America by Jennifer Pahlka (Book)

--- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

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