Giving a refreshing viewpoint

Challenge

The design department at General Motors China designated 2006 as a year for improving its internal culture and atmosphere, and for preparing for the future demands for innovation in an increasingly competitive market.

They called 2006 a “Happy Design” year, a year for improving employee engagement, retention and intra-departmental communications. While still an excellent organization, they, like many companies, want to continue to grow and have a sustainable workforce.

Process

For many years, CBi has advised and worked with GM’s design department, meaning our team already had a deep understanding of its current culture and the future culture that it desired.

Drawing on our diverse training experience and our network of international design experts, we customized a series of creative yet business-oriented events to stimulate the minds and emotions of GM’s design professionals. By customizing each of the topics for designers and design leaders, we were confident that we could increase knowledge about design methodologies and management for creative teams.

Outcome

Programs we created included:

Where do design inspirations come from and how to visualize them?

Cross-cultural communication skills.

How to create an inspiring social and physical environment.

Managing Creative team

Chinese Traditional Culture and Modern Design

Training methods included

Lectures, outdoor activities and active participation exercises.

Some participant feedback:

"I highly appreciate this training because it was taught in a straightforward and easy-to-understand way. For instance, the analysis of a simple case enables us to understand profound truths."

"It has allowed me to break the yoke of current thinking, and consider ways to enhance the effectiveness of my team from a new perspective."

"The theoretical guidance and case analysis provided by the training has greatly helped participants in facilitating their work."