Rise of the Deo: Leadership by Design

The Rise of the DEO provides a description of leadership in the design age. It concentrates on laying out all of the positive aspects of leadership with little to no consideration of the realities and compromises reality requires. It is an example of the type of book that everyone will agree with, publicly state that they aspire to be and then go about their normal business. That is why its just an OK book or three stars.How to become a DEO is the one thing missing from this book. Its also the reason I bought the book and dedicated time to read it.Please read on before you condemn this review as being from a reactionary, non-innovative or someone who just does not get it. Devotees of design, who accept the principles with little debate, will find this book foundational. Slight skeptics on the other hand will agree that the points the authors make are interesting but they will take the descriptions with a grain of salt and suspect.Maria Giudice and Christopher Ireland provide a compressive description of a to-be vision for design principles as a model for leadership. The aspiration is a good one, but in execution the DEO book fails to create a blueprint for future leaders. This happens when the book concentrates on delineating a list of design principles and then describing how they apply to leadership. The result is a list of characteristics that are all encompassing to a degree that makes it difficult to see how to become this type of leader. The characteristics make up the chapters of the book and include:Personal leadership characteristics -- the "ME" as the authors call them:- Change Agent- Risk Taker- System Thinker- Intuitive- Socially Intelligent- GSD-- Getting 'stuff' doneGroup leadership characteristics -- the "WE"- Co-creation- Networks and Communities- Crafting Culture- Care and Feeding- Place MattersLeadership for action -- the "DO"- Positive Passion- Expertise- Problem Solving- Permission to Fail- Playful Work- Iterate and EvolveLeadership from the inside -- the "BE" aspect- Integrity- Humility- Generosity- OriginalityTaking together these 22 characteristics define a rare individual indeed a cross between a number of famous people -- just take your pick. That is where the book delivers and declines to take the next step -- how do you become this type of leader. The authors include a series of Profiles who they consider DEO's which is a great part of the book. Unfortunately much of these write ups talk about the people themselves, their experiences and innate traits which give the reader the idea that DEO's are born rather than being made.StrengthsComprehensive in its description and discussion of the manifestation of design traits in leadershipGraphic illustrations of its concepts and points as well as the paths of the profiled leadersChallengesThe book is written to a design oriented audience, people who already 'get it' so to speak, but that is not the audience who needs to understand and practice these principles.While the book features several profiles, they do not contain profiles of people who lead in more traditional organizations. This gives the impression that DEO's can only be found in those type of companies rather than in more traditional companies. That means that DEO traits do not matter to all of those people working in 'traditional' companies.

I was utterly astonished by the content of this brilliant collaboration of minds and ideas. It is a truly cogent and digestible masterpiece on what has been happening in the design world for quite some time......unfortunately unbeknownst to its "leaders". I found myself circling every other comment and thought and screaming "Yes, yes, yes!" to the logic that spilled from its pages. The graphics, the how to's and the biographical features were all fabulous and extremely comforting. I worked in the design industry for over a decade. I only wish I had run into the types of leaders that this work illustrates. I might still be in the industry today if that were the case. This provocative and instructive book belongs in every public, university, business and design library intent upon succeeding in the 21st century and beyond. It is flabbergasting how much vital information was edited and contained within such a compact piece. It was also gratifying to identify the traits of the majority of favorite people in my life within its pages. Kudos ladies!

A clearly articulated and organized book on the power of design thinking in context of business, collaboration and getting good work done. Maria and Christopher ask us to stop thinking about design as a role, or exclusively relegating it to a person, a group, or a particular profession. Instead, they write and use interviews to illustrate the power of design thinking as a strategic and critical necessity in business innovation and management today.That approach makes this book as accessible and meaningful to someone in a leadership role as it does to an inventor, sales person, manager or graphic designer.This book is a welcome validation and message for many of us who have been siloed by the outdated "creative ability and business acumen don't mix". I hear them saying "Embrace the power of the creative you are and step up to lead with it." Bravo!

You know what, the book is fine but wish the reseller had taken their price off the book. Not a great look or experience receiving the book and seeing a $2 price tag on it. I paid considerably more. Left a bad taste in the mouth.

This is one of those books that every CEO and aspiring CEO should read. As companies continue to realize that corporate culture can be a differentiator and look to actively mold that culture, it is very valuable to have real world stories and examples of how others have done it.Changing culture is not straightforward or easy and as a result it is often overlooked or ignored. Hopefully those who read this realize that done incrementally and iteratively, cultural change within an organization is achievable. As illustrated through the engaging interviews and compiled data, cultural change is a process of evolution lead by those with the vision to reject the status quo.

I like the concepts this book presents. It reads more like a philosophy of the writer than a real movement in culture, but that's ok. The points are valid and it elevates design to a role it SHOULD be at. Finally, it helps people like me and this author to begin a discussion about the changing roles of business and design, especially in relation to their responsibilities and values in culture.

Rise of the DEO is not a traditional leadership book, it is not a traditional design book, it is a visual manual on creativity. It feels authentic, valuable, and dare I say it, new and original.In line with their thesis, Ms. Giudice and Ms. Ireland present a systematic and grounded but also creative and illustrative case for balanced leadership, and in doing so have identified a trend that will surely resonate with the next generation of leaders.

Nothing earth shattering but a decent read. Many motherhood statements but nuggets that everyone can take from. Three star rating.

Brilliant! Worth 6 stars, easily! Punches through 5 with ease and grace, laps the field and re-emerges with the stragglers. Giudice and Ireland have produced an unrivalled parody of the management-cum-self help therapy manual. The authors manage to keep a totally straight face while putting forward their manifesto for the leadership style of the Design Executive Officer of tomorrow.Although they admit early on that they were unable to come up with a definition of design they do not let this prevent them from proclaiming the attributes of forward-thinking DEOs. The book lists about 20 DEO traits such as "co-creation", "playful work", "care and feeding", "positive passion" etc. Each is described in a brief chapter of 15 to 20 short paragraphs of undemanding, highly positive (OK, gushing) text extolling the virtues of one of these themes. Large banners reveal some amazing insight - splashed on page 51 in huge red letters: "80% of the results are generated by 20% of the efforts". At the end of each of these sections are 4 or 5 paragraphs on how anyone can gain the qualities described. These seem to be pitched at primary school level. For example, one of the four "workouts" for building systems-thinking comprises: "Learn to diagram and use this skill to increase your understanding of system interactions. Diagrams can deconstruct everything from sentences to nuclear power plants. An easy first step is to learn to make schematic drawings with lines, arrows, circles and squares". That's it. Simples! Workout no. 2 on systems-building includes "If you're reading a report online, print it out". For building your "risk" chops they suggest going on a Ferris wheel or playing Monopoly. The "change" workouts include trying a new heel height or wearing your watch on the other wrist. I am not exaggerating the level of banality and the authors successfully achieve it without the merest hint of irony.There is no analysis as such, no dissection of what design really means, how it can be implemented or comparing the circumstances in which it should thrive or would not work well. However, there are plenty of arbitrary numbers thrown around. These are often depicted as a coloured sphere filled to a level indicating the proportion being depicted (e.g. "80% of companies do not intentionally craft their company culture"). To make the case for "investing in companies with outstanding workplaces" they provide a single example, a "3-D" bar chart showing a 12.24% 5-year return for the Parnassus Fund against 5.81% for the S&P 500 Index with no analysis whatsoever. Most of the "charts" depict only one or sometimes two data points. In one of the book's more data-rich infographics (ie one with 3 data points), a large basic pie chart in the risk chapter splits success into 30% risk, 30% skill and 40% training. Wow!Apart from the sustained deadpan satire of the whole production, for me the highlights are the funky colour-tinted photos of photogenic DEOs such as Jesse Ziff Cool, followed by some mildly interesting interviews. Basically, the book reads like an extended spoof glossy magazine article pitched at primary school level or lower (see cover picture).