Equity Kickoff Workshop at Ford
Sparking behavior shifts for equitable decision-making
Organization: Ford Motor Company
Role: Human Centered Designer
Focus: Design Thinking, Inclusive Design
Time: May 2023 - Aug 2023
As part of a push for an inclusive design transformation at Ford, I led the next round of iterations on a workshop my team had been developing to help new projects become more equitable. I created a digital and physical workshop for teams to go through together, with extra resources to learn from and accompanying facilitator guides. While I can’t share all the details, I’ve shared an overview below.
The Challenge
Ford teams want to design with more equity and inclusion in mind, but there’s no right or easy way to do this.
Because there’s no clear methods or ways to do this, teams need time to step back and re-evaluate how to adapt their practices to include more mindful equity and inclusion decisions. But in a large and fast-paced business, teams have to juggle with a lot of deadlines and projects already on their plate.
Ford teams want a way to embed equity practices into their work without taking too much time away from their existing responsibilities.
The Outcome
The second iteration of the equity kickoff workshop was created to facilitate teams through equitable decision making relevant to any new projects that start at Ford.
The rest of the details of the workshop and my process are confidential, but below are some of my favorite memories from my summer.
The workshop is made for teams to work through collaboratively and for them to generate actionable steps to embed equity and inclusion into their projects. The workshop can be done digitally or on paper, comes with facilitation notes and set up guides, and with flexible resources for teams to use throughout the rest of their design process.
