Here is the first rule: don’t give your new design methodology a name. Even if you read about it in a book, put it in the language that your team and organization understand. Bringing in fancy titles and taglines sounds to your team like speaking a foreign language, It’s really insensitive and is a way to create instant resistance. Start at the top level, explain what strategy you’re trying to accomplish, and then brainstorm with them with this new approach might do—thinking ahead of time how to use language that makes sense already. This will solve 99% of your problems.

Introduce the concepts in your team’s language, and let them build upon it with their own language. Refer back to point number one earlier. Aligning on the language and then seeing it translate into behavior is how you build.

Celebrating and showing success is the fuel for the change. Pilot in areas that are lower risk, yet visible and meaningful. When the success comes, do whatever you can to promote it. This will naturally cause if to scalefrom there. It’s slow at first, but builds exponentially.

To build momentum and confidence in the new methodologies, I focus on achieving and showcasing early wins. By setting short-term goals that can be quickly achieved using the new methods, I can demonstrate their effectiveness in real-time. For instance, if the new methodology involves a different approach to prototyping, I might prioritize creating a small, functional prototype of a key feature of the wheelchair-bed, such as the height-adjustment mechanism. Seeing tangible results can help alleviate doubts and encourage the team to embrace the changes.

consistently reinforce how the new design methodologies align with the overall vision and goals of the project. For the wheelchair-bed hybrid, I remind the team that our ultimate objective is to develop a product that significantly improves the lives of individuals with mobility issues. By framing the new methodologies as tools that will help us achieve this vision more effectively, I can help the team see the bigger picture and stay motivated.