Can design consultants actually design organizations?

There is talk now in the design community about  designers moving on from helping organizations  design experiences to take on the challenge of design organizations so they can design their own experiences. 

The epiphany that has triggered this aspirational urge is that the barrier for good design is not existing expertise, talent, or know-how among designers. What stops good design from happening is the dysfunctional elements that impact an organization's culture: its people, its organizational structure, its processes, and its communication.

Unlike physical products, organizations are not static entities. They are in constant flow and require constant re-imagining and redesigning. In this context, how useful it is to design an organization as a design consultant and walk away expecting it to perform excellently from the get-go? 

And what about the existing culture at this organization? Can you truly understand the inner workings and politics of an organization in the time it takes to complete a consulting gig? And assuming you can't, how much does this hamstrings your ability to provide meaningful recommendations?

The conclusion is that any attempt to shape more design-centric organizations can't come from outside and can't be done in the context of a consulting gig. Changing a whole culture is possible but it has to be done from inside and on an ongoing basis; observing, thinking, tweaking, over and over and over, And you have to do this for as long as you want keep this new design culture you are trying to create alive.

Photo: Christian Stoll