Leading with a Human-Centred Design Mindset

Along our leadership journeys, we’re often taught that being a leader means having all the answers. Many organisations champion the mantra: “Don’t come to me with a problem, come to me with a solution.” But this mindset can limit outcomes and block the possibility of innovation.  

Leading with a human-centred mindset means leading with a learner’s mindset. It requires intentionally reviewing what is considered normal or possible within your organisation. To me, it is an uncommon mindset that places humans at the centre of our processes, prioritising human experiences and going beyond what is accepted practice to create genuine opportunities for innovation. 

When I think about the challenges leaders face today, I find myself asking: 

• How are we making decisions? 

• Why are we making these decisions?  

• What are those decisions based on? 

• Are we defaulting to the assumption that more is always better? 

  
  

Business-as-usual often comes with a set of assumptions. These assumptions shape what is seen as normal, possible, and desirable. It’s easy to believe that maintaining the status quo means accepting “how things are done.” In organisations focused on productivity and profitability, we assume restructures every few years, or that digitisation is always the next step. These assumptions become mindsets, and they shape the decisions we make. 

What does it mean to think ‘human-centred’?

A little while ago, I talked with an organisation that had adopted a new KPI structure for its leadership team. Part of this included leaders going out on the road with frontline staff once a quarter so they could literally walk in the shoes of their customers. The organisation tied hard KPIs to this activity; if leaders didn’t do it, they didn’t qualify for their bonus.

There’s genuine value in experiencing your product the way your customers do. This is where real insights surface, helping us make decisions that are impactful, ambitious, and deeply human. For many leaders, conversations about customers can feel vulnerable and exposing. But leading change with curiosity builds understanding and empathy at the executive level.

Billions of dollars are lost each year on digital transformation. This is where organisations create the latest app, automate processes, or implement AI-powered chatbots without asking, ‘Is this what my customers actually want?’

However, data suggests that organisations that commit to a human-centred approach to adopting new technology see roughly a 50% reduction in risk and up to 10 times higher return on investment. When we drive change through a human-centred lens, we can focus on what truly matters, often resulting in more successful outcomes.

Leading with Uncommon Standards

Often, the real leadership skill is knowing what matters right now to drive outcomes, and what needs more evaluation and can come later. I recently worked with a large organisation that got three things right:

1. They committed to evidence-based decision-making.

2. They socialised decisions internally, so people understood what was happening and why.

3. They brought their people on the journey, building momentum that fuelled system-wide change.

Their leaders sat in front of their people, faced the hard questions, and supported them through the change.

So many organisations spend huge amounts of time and money chasing the next best thing, without shifting the underlying beliefs. There is a major opportunity for leaders to rethink what’s possible: to grow sustainably and innovate beyond profit and processes. When we create opportunities for collaboration, anchored in purpose, we open the door to innovation.

By making data-driven decisions that prioritise humans, we break mental models and behaviour patterns. We commit to evidence-based decision-making rather than assumption-led change.

When I think about the biggest challenges leaders face today, two themes keep coming to mind.

• The first is about decision-making clarity. Too often, there’s confusion, or even a complete absence of clarity, around the foundations of decision-making. And if we’re not clear on what guides our choices, we can’t expect to make good ones.

• The second is the assumption that “more is better.” We pile on more projects, more activity, more initiatives, believing volume equals' progress. But effective leadership today is about knowing how to nuance what matters now, what can wait, and what needs deeper evaluation.

The real differentiator? Leaders who can confidently say, “I don’t know yet, but here’s how I’ll find out,” are the ones moving forward. Those who can’t are the ones left treading water. Curious as to how a human-centred mindset can work in your organisation? Get in touch!