In short: use a mix of official moments (committees, work meetings, emails) and unofficial moments (watercooler discussion, coffee chat, superior talks, etc).

There isn't just the official door to make stuff happen in large organizations. There are many. And knowing how to play with unofficial channels is part of the lobbying and political side of Service Design

The metaphor of the Third Door is one that I'm stealing from Alex Banayan and that I first heard on the Colin & Samir show.

Play in parallel

When engaging people in a hierarchy either below or up there are official ways to do it in a large organization. And you should use those and respect them.

But that doesn't mean you can't use unofficial channels.

Over the years I've learned the hard way that playing only with the official channels doesn't work, because:

• You get in contact only for decision making

• You don't get to test things before they get big.

• You don't give a chance to people to prepare themselves to what's coming.

So it's smart to play in parallel: official and unofficial.

For what to use unofficial channels

Unofficial channels are great for:

• Testing: rebriefing, showing a prototype, asking questions so that you can improve stuff before it gets officially reviewed.

• Preparing: to let people know what will arrive later, so that they can prepare themselves and others of their team.

• Getting tips: get tips on how to best frame, present, ask, when the official moment will come.

Which channels to use in parallel?

Obviously you can use the classical work tools to get in touch even for unofficial stuff (emails, calls, texts, etc.). But to me the magic is often in the more personal stuff, getting a coffee together, a conversation in the corridor or using another event for a "by the way conversation".