The final Presentation session for IxDASydney, before festive drinks On Dec 5, brings a couple of well known design leaders to the podium. This month, we're going to talk about leadership, what it is and how to do it well.

The Talks

Ian Muir: From Designer to Leader: Introducing the 5i Design Leadership Model

Appropriate for a Designer or Design Manager aspiring to be a Leader, or an experienced Design Leader. The 5i model incorporates 5 elements important to Leading in a Design context; Inspiring Others, Being Instrumental & Instructional, Having Influence and Obtaining Impact. An abundance of generic material on leadership makes knowledge seeking confusing and daunting and so this presentation talks about Leadership from an experienced Designer Leader’s perspective. Use of this model can help take your Design team to the next level, produce better results, have a greater impact and get cut-through in your organisation. Utilise the 5i model as a practical & simple set of themes to apply on an everyday basis, and make this a leadership tool of choice or blend with your own leadership model to gain Leadership confidence.

Tim Yeo: Design Leadership for Introverts

Do you squirm in your seat when all eyes are on you? Do you find networking awkward and embarrassing? In meetings, do you find yourself keeping quiet even though you have something to say? Does a quiet evening at home with a book sound more attractive to you than an evening socialising with people you’ve never met? If your answer to most of these questions is yes, congratulations: you are (probably) an introvert. As an introvert, you lose energy when engaging with people rather than gain. People engagement is not optional if you want to lead. So how do you lead as an introvert? In this talk, I share techniques I’ve used to manage my own introversion in order to lead as a designer.

The Agenda

5:30-6:25 PM drinks, food, networking
6:30-6:45 PM Intro and welcome and general IxDA information (No entry after 6:40)
6:45-7:10 PM Tim Yeo
7:10-7:20 PM Shoutouts (roles available, projects seeking volunteers, other events of interest)
7:20-8:00 PM Ian Muir
8:00 PM- Exeunt and downstairs to for drinks and further discussions/networking, etc.

We are aware there are two males for this evening's presentation and we acknowledge the many excellent women leading design in Sydney, and reached out to several who have presented on this topic before, none of whom were available for this time slot. We would like to add that IxDASydney typically has a more balance agenda and has at times also had women only evenings. We also welcome more women to come forward with presentation ideas through our Speaking Invitation.

Main Photo by Ksenia Kudelkina on Unsplash

The Presenters

Ian Muir

Ian is a Professor in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Managing Director of idm Design Labs, consulting in business strategy, digital transformation, service design and design capability. Ian has been a Non-Executive Board Director at the leading Startup space, Fishburners, mentored startups and entrepreneurs for 6 years.

Pioneering Human Centred Design in Australia, and shaping the industry from 1996, Ian built & led one of the largest and most mature Design practices in Australia, winning a range of Design and Innovation Awards.

Ian’s 20 years in financial services was preceded by 10 years in industrial automation, including robotics and artificial intelligence. His creative problem solving as applied to manufacturing and process industries in a variety of sales, marketing, product management and software development roles.

Recent studies in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence inspired Ian’s interest in Design ethics, particularly relating to Design Leadership. Technology is impacting the way the world works, driving an imperative to create better-Designed outcomes through products and services, and also create better-Designed organisations and organisational cultures.

Tim Yeo

Design leader. Speaker. Bookbinder. Known for saying complex things simply. Design @SonderSafe. Formerly Head of Design at fintechs @OFX, @Prospa, startup co-founder.