Chapter 6: Deliver (Operationalizing Value)
You can have every capability the strategy demands and still fail the stakeholder. A student tells the leadership team something they have not heard before: "You redesigned the engine. Have you redesigned the experience of being a passenger?" This chapter reveals the difference between having the engine and designing the ride -- why operations designed from the inside out optimize for institutional convenience, while operations designed from the outside in optimize for the thing that actually matters.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you'll be able to:
- Explain how the Deliver phase transforms capability designs into operational value and answers the governance question "Are we getting them done well?"
- Distinguish between operations optimized for internal efficiency and operations designed for stakeholder outcomes
- Describe the concept of value co-creation and how it changes the organization's relationship with stakeholders
- Explain why a metrics hierarchy (outcomes, experience, process) matters for preventing the Operations-Purpose Gap
- Articulate how feedback loops from Deliver connect back to Discover, completing the Design4 cycle
Key Concepts
Self-Assessment
Before moving to the next chapter, ensure you can:
Reflection Questions
Apply these concepts to your own context:
1. Think about Aisha's challenge: "Have you asked students what the experience of being at Lakeshore should actually feel like?" If you asked your primary stakeholders the same question about your organization, what do you think they would say? Have you ever asked?
2. Look at your organization's current performance dashboard. How many metrics are at Level 1 (outcomes), Level 2 (experience), and Level 3 (process)? What does the ratio tell you about what the organization is actually optimizing for?
3. How does your organization currently feed operational insights back into strategic decision-making? Is the feedback loop systematic or informal? What gets lost?