MEDIJATOR Dijana Novak Krešić

Guest Dijana Novak KrešićHosted by Srđan ŠimacMay 3, 2026

Dijana Novak Krešić

About this episode

What you'll hear in this conversation

Dijana Novak Krešić started her career as an architect, a background that might seem distant from her current work helping organizations navigate their most complex internal challenges. Yet, she argues, it's precisely this training that informs her methodological approach: design thinking. She applies this structured, iterative method not just to product development but to the intricacies of human interaction within companies, particularly how employees truly perceive and live out stated company values. Her work reveals that the most impactful solutions aren't about external clients, but about fostering genuine understanding and participation among the people who make an organization run. You will come away with a clearer sense of how a human-centered approach, supported by unexpected tools like rapid visual mapping, can transform internal communication and problem-solving.

Insights from the conversation

What to take from this episode

Dijana Novak Krešić, an architect by training, naturally applies design thinking to organizational problems, breaking down complex issues into five distinct stages. This structured, iterative process, rooted in engineering techniques, helps to precisely define a problem before exploring and refining solutions, often revealing that the first idea is rarely the final one.

While many focus on external clients, Dijana's workshops center on employees, exploring how they truly experience and interpret company values. This focus on internal understanding creates space for a 'quality conversation' that bridges the gap between leadership's intentions and the team's daily reality, fostering deeper alignment than top-down directives ever could.

Organizations often place employees in 'boxes,' limiting their roles, but Dijana argues that hiring specific people means valuing their 'specific totality.' People don't leave parts of themselves at home; recognizing and engaging their full potential, beyond a job description, leads to greater employee satisfaction and more significant contributions.

As an architect, Dijana consistently draws throughout her workshops, capturing key phrases and process steps visually. This practice isn't just for memory; seeing the entire discussion as a single image helps the mind connect dots and creates 'clicks' of understanding that words alone often miss.

These workshop drawings often span three to five meters, providing clients with a lasting, tangible record of their thinking process. This physical artifact allows teams to revisit the entire journey, fostering a deeper awareness of the path taken and the work accomplished, counteracting the selective nature of memory.

During discussions, participants often voice 'phenomenal conclusions' that they themselves forget minutes later. Dijana's immediate visual capture of these insights ensures these valuable, spontaneous breakthroughs are preserved, validating the speaker's contribution and enriching the collective understanding.

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