Strategic Innovation: Solving Inclusion Challenges with Design Thinking
TAGS: INCLUSION, STRATEGY, TALENT MANAGEMENT, MEETING FACILITATION
THE OPPORTUNITY
A major technology company sought to move beyond traditional "top-down" strategies to solve industry-wide challenges around inclusion, employee engagement, and retention. They launched a collaborative summit, bringing together leadership and people professionals across the sector to brainstorm innovative, scalable solutions to complex workplace culture hurdles.
OUR PROCESS
The Cee Suite was engaged as a strategic partner and facilitator to design a high-impact experience for leaders from more than 15 technology companies. Our goal was to move participants from "scratching the surface" to deep, actionable ideation:
Through a series of meetings, we worked with the sponsor company to brainstorm priorities and innovative ways in which we might develop solutions to the industry’s challenges.
We introduced Design Thinking, typically an ideation process for engineering and product development, as the framework for solving inclusive recruiting, engagement, and retention challenges.
We used persona-based exercises to help participants step into the shoes of their workforce, ensuring strategies were built around real human experiences rather than corporate assumptions.
WHAT WE DELIVERED: THE IMPACT
During the half-day summit, over 100 strategic ideas were generated, including company-wide allyship frameworks and creative sourcing models designed to both address internal challenges and foster a sense of shared industry accountability.
Key components of our delivery included:
The ‘How Might We’ Challenge: A structured brainstorming session for expanding talent pools and overcoming retention roadblocks.
‘The Fishbowl’ Debate: A facilitated high-stakes discussion on the evolution of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and meaningful engagement models.
‘Design for Human’ Exercise: An empathy-mapping toolkit used to design retention strategies for real-life workplace scenarios.
TESTIMONIALS
“The Cee Suite’s ability to bring our ideas to life and their insight into what would resonate with the audience was very helpful. They facilitated the workshop with ease, flexing to the needs of the audience and building on the goals for the day.” — Sponsor Company
“Most events only scratch the surface, but this allowed us to get real and discuss what can be done. This was the event I have been waiting for.” — Summit Participant