Year Two Alumni Fellow Laurie Asava, Year Three Alumni Fellow Rachel Rosenbaum, and Year Four Alumni Fellow Eric Silverstein have all stayed on at their host company, General Motors (GM), doing innovative work on the employee engagement team.

Can you each describe your roles at GM?

We are all members of the Employee Engagement Team within the Global Talent & Development organization at General Motors. Our team consists of Talent Analytics, Career Development, Leadership Development and Global Learning. As a team, we work on everything from deploying a global survey to over 200,000 employees to leading design thinking workshops to fueling a culture change initiative inspiring employees to build the culture that they want to see.

Why did chose to stay on at your host company after Challenge Detroit and how have your opportunities evolved there?

Laurie has been with GM now for three years and shared with us three reasons why she has chosen to stay:

I can make a difference: When I started at GM I thought there would be no way for one young college grad to make an impact at a multi-national corporation with 213,000+ employees, but boy was I wrong. GM is looking for sharp, bright talent that is willing to push the company forward. I want to make a difference and at GM I have the ability to inspire and impact every single employee as well as make history in helping transform one of the most iconic companies in the world

I have creative license: GM allows me to be myself and bring my creativity to the table. I get to use my passions and skills for a greater purpose of creating a human-centered company culture.

The people are the best: GM has the most genuine, hardworking individuals that I have ever met. To be able to start, grow and learn from these people is priceless, especially being so young in my career.

Rachel has been with GM now for two years and reflected on her experience both as a fellow and how her work has evolved:

Throughout my Challenge Detroit year I grew an immense amount, both through the program and at GM. By the end of the year, I was sure I had more to learn from Detroit, as well as GM. However, I was nervous to commit. At the end of July 2015, our team had the opportunity to design, plan, and execute an event for 200 cross-functional employees. The event challenged employees to think about their role in building a community in Detroit, as well as GM. When I saw the impact the event had on such a diverse group of employees, I was excited by the growing momentum and knew I wanted to continue to play a role in the change.

Please share about some of the exciting initiatives at GM that you are working on and how your team is using design thinking.

We use design thinking as a framework for everything we do. Forcing ourselves to approach every opportunity with a human-centered perspective allows us to build around what employees actually want and need, as opposed to what we think they want to experience. In doing so, we are able to model the way we believe all employees should approach their work—putting the customer at the center.

Some specific projects that we are working on that incorporate the design thinking framework include:

• GM2020: A grassroots culture movement creating a network of change agents. It is focused on unleashing the potential of our employees to co-create the future of GM and inspiring them to make it happen.

• CO:LABs: A 24-hour design thinking challenge used to solve key business challenges around the organization.

How are you able to continue to make an impact in the community through your roles at GM?

At GM we focus on improving the communities in which we live and work, and with Detroit being our home turf, we know we need to bring in the community in many ways. We partner a lot with our Community Outreach team who focus on the people of Detroit. We share the stories of the doers in the city that are making things happen to inspire our employees. We take it as a personal challenge to connect with the community as many ways as we can from local shops catering events to large-scale volunteer projects with our Student Corps program.

We also support the community by encouraging each team that uses the Innovation Xchange [an innovative space that houses our team and collaborative events] to cater from local restaurants. We make sure to ask the caterers to share their stories and business cards so that those in attendance can spread the word and hopefully, give them future business. We’ve seen that employees love the change (and the food!) and realize the impact they can have on the community while they are working.

Looking back on your Challenge Detroit year, what helped you as you continue your career and life in Detroit?

Laurie says,

Challenge Detroit taught me the language to talk about Detroit in a new and interesting way. The discussions we had and the activities we participated in showed me not to be afraid to have real conversations about the good and the bad, but then to also do something about it. It taught me the process of Design Thinking which helps me create the human-centered action that takes gaps and make them opportunities.

Rachel says,

Challenge Detroit forced me to learn how to approach a city in a new, more meaningful way. The program pushed me to think critically about what I hear, see, read, and experience in Detroit and how I interact with the people who live here. Right now, this learning helps me challenge the norm in my job, which is important because that IS my job. Moving forward though, I know that I will take this experience and apply it to every new city I live in and job I take. There is always an opportunity to rethink the way things are, whether it is my job or not.

Eric says,

Challenge Detroit offered a phenomenal opportunity to learn the complexity of social issues urban cities face. The program offered an opportunity to look at these issues from multiple perspectives while learning and living in a new city with a monumental history in terms of the industrial revolution and race relations in our country. Learning that history and how to navigate rightfully tense spaces, have meaningful interactions, and generate positive impact are all things I learned in my time with Challenge Detroit.