Design Thinking for Work and Life

Some of the most useful tools I bring to talent and leadership work come from design thinking. I earned my coaching certification through the Design Your (Work) Life program, taught by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, the Stanford educators behind the Designing Your Life and Designing Your New Work Life books. Built on one of Stanford's most popular electives for years, the program applies design thinking to the 'wicked' problems of life and vocational wayfinding, the open-ended challenges that rarely have a single right answer. It certifies coaches to guide individuals and small groups through design thinking methodology applied to career development, professional growth, and life in general.

It built on my earlier certification in IDEO's Foundations in Design Thinking, and it sharpened how I approach human-centered design in the talent management, career development, and employee engagement work I lead. At its core, design thinking gives leaders a structured, humane way to move people and organizations forward when the path is not obvious.

A few of the ideas I find most useful in practice:

Ideas worth borrowing

• Naming the dysfunctional beliefs that quietly shape our personal and professional decisions.
• Reframing our perspective so we can make more adaptive choices and take more effective action.
• Using the Minimum Actionable Problem (MAP) and rapid prototyping, the career equivalent of a Minimum Viable Product, to get unstuck from 'gravity problems' and take a real next step.
• Thinking like a designer, and building that mindset into the talent and culture work I lead.
• Drawing on the tools and exercises Burnett and Evans developed to help individuals and teams practice work and life design.

Where could a designer's mindset help you reframe a problem in your own work, career, or organization, and take the next small step forward?