Workshops

Bring DYL to your organisation

In a turbulent world of accelerating global, economic and technology changes employees at every level need the tools to design work and a life that works for them  and your organization.

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Why bring Designing Your Work Life to your organization?

The world of work is ever changing.

AI, automation, robots and new technologies will continue to replace today’s jobs. Employees at every level are struggling with shifting expectations, blurred boundaries, isolation, burnout, reskilling, and lack of career growth. Many feel stuck, and no longer want to force fit their life into work, but rather want work to fit into a thriving life.

We work with organizations who want to empower their business and people
to use design thinking and life design tools to build employee engagement, drive professional development, improve employee wellness and increase creativity
and innovation.

We deliver solutions both in person and virtually to meet the needs of onsite, remote and hybrid work.

Check out the work we’ve done with our clients. Hover on the tile to get information about their solution and feedback.

Contact us to bring a workshop to your company

What do our customers say?

“The DYL workshop provided my team with the tools and motivation to consider collective approaches to improving our well being. After generating lots of possible ideas, we chose a group time management pilot that we implemented in the weeks after the workshop. The pilot delivered improved well-being, greater insight into how we might better use our time, and deeper understanding of an iterative design process that we can now apply to other challenges.”

 

Jennifer Kurkoski
Jennifer Kurkoski
Google HR Director

“We brought DYL to Bain in Asia to help our people design their balance and energy during pandemic restrictions. With work and life overlapping and competing in new ways, the workshop helped our people design new ways to work and live. The feedback was positive: “One of the best facilitations in my experience” and “More than anything it is wonderful to take the time out to think about how to solve some wicked problems and make space to think about how to make our lives more enjoyable.”

 

Stephen Shih
Stephen Shih
Associate Dean, MBA Programs and Adjunct Professor of Management, HKUST Business School

“Why just read the book, when you can experience an interactive Design Your Life Workshop! Led by engaging facilitators, Susan and Kathy, the journey moves from concepts to practice in a fast-paced and fun environment, where radical collaboration leads to new levels of thinking and potential experiments. I left with confidence, an action plan with small simple steps, and a network of support.”

 

Maria Massei-Rosato
Maria Massei-Rosato
Entrepreneur and former executive at Federal Reserve Bank of New York

3 hour Zoom workshop to help leaders:

  • reframe work-life balance
  • assess balance and energy and define a problem worth working on
  • ideate possible solutions using Idea Boards
  • design a balance and energy prototype
  • leave with a “Designer’s Action Plan”

 

“It was very valuable to get some tools that helped me think about my energy levels in a different way. I found the exercises, especially the ones on outlining a typical week. particularly helpful. The Idea Board session was particularly fun and inspiring.” – Bain Employee

3 hour Zoom Workshop for individual contributors and managers to help them design future career/life possibilities:

  • define and share the meaning of work
  • design 3 future lives/careers – your Odysseys
  • design a life prototype to test a future
  • build and share you Designer’s Action Plan

 

“The interactive breakouts were great. Love doing it, instead of just talking about how it’s done. I liked the notion of three plans not one and small, specific prototypes to build your way forward.” – CPP Employee

3 hour Zoom workshop to help a global HR team:

  • assess balance and energy at the individual
    and team level
  • collaborate on team balance and energy
  • challenges using Idea Boards
  • design a balance and energy prototype at the individual and team level
  • leave with individual and team actions

 

“I love that we focused on the issue of balance and how it impacts our lives. I got real tools to design a prototype to increase my balance and energy and left here motivated to take action. Even better we tackled this as a team and have some joint actions that could help us all. Loved the breakout conversations.” – Discovery Manager

1½ day in person program for the Berry Products team to help them:

  • build a compass to navigate life changes
  • assess past and current work roles through the lens of change and impact
  • assess balance and energy
  • design balance and energy improvements
  • get unstuck from an ongoing problem
  • design 3 future lives/careers – your Odysseys
  • leave with a prototype to test possibilities and a Designer’s Action Plan

 

“I shared my workview and heard what work meant to my colleagues, and I learned so much about why we all work and the impact we want to make. I’ve worked with these people for a while now and never had this deep a conversation before. It was eye opening to see how much people who are so different have in common.” – Driscoll’s Manager

Modules delivered to help people apply the design process to life and work challenges:

  • build a compass to navigate life changes
  • assess past and present roles through the lens of change and impact
  • assess balance and energy and design
    improvements
  • get unstuck from an ongoing problem
  • design 3 future lives/careers – your Odysseys
  • leave with a prototype to test possibilities and a Designer’s Action Plan

 

“I learned a lot about my colleagues as we shared our balance challenges and problems we’ve been stuck on for a while. I loved the ideation sessions, where we used Idea Boards and creative brainstorming to solve what seemed like unsolvable problems. The prototyping process takes away a lot of the fear of trying something new.” – Fidelity Manager

A DYL journey of three 2 hour Zoom Sessions for an intact team who wanted to:

  • Build a Life Compass to navigate the challenges and changes in work and life.
  • Design individual and team balance for optimal performance
  • Design work for increased satisfaction, including a prototype conversation to ask for what you want.

 

“I liked the different activities that forced me to think about these life and career questions. I also liked hearing what others had to say.”

“I loved the anonymous jamboards for ideation and the breakouts for collaboration.”

“I liked being on the spot to come up with a concrete pitch to improve my job. Being forced to commit to an idea helped me think about what I really meant and wanted and how my actual pitch could be better.”

2 half days in person workshop focused on:

  • building a work-life compass
  • assessing your balance and mapping your energy
  • designing balance and energy improvements
  • redesigning your job for increased satisfaction
  • designing and prototyping your “ask”
  • designing future career and lives – your Odysseys
  • leaving with a prototype to test possibilities

 

“The workview and lifeview conversations were profound. I connected to others I just met in this session, in a deep way. And I learned more about what I’m looking for in my work and career.” – LLNL Employee

1 day in person workshop focused on:

  • building a work-life compass
  • designing balance and energy improvements
  • getting unstuck from a ”wicked problem”
  • designing future career and lives – your Odysseys
  • leaving with a prototype to test possibilities

 

“Thanks for an incredible day! It’s things like this that makes me never want to leave. In a lot of the breakout sessions, many people mentioned how grateful they are to be at a company that truly cares about an employee’s personal and professional growth.” – Pinterest Employee

4 hour in person workshop focused on:

  • Defining and sharing the meaning of work
  • Exploring the relationship between work, change and impact using a designers 2×2
  • Designing 3 future lives/careers – your Odysseys
  • Designing a life prototype to test a future

In conjunction with our partner Leadership Labs, a 2 hour workshop focused on:

  • Problem-framing and reframing and Ideation applied to emerging business challenges/opportunities

 

“The workshop was fun and creative! Kathy and John were great facilitators.”

A 2 hour in person workshop for Workday Xplore Week, helping Product & Technology Early Talent apply human-centered design to professional challenges through:

  • problem framing and reframing
  • ideation
  • action planning

1 day in person workshop for YPO executives to:

  • build a compass to navigate life challenges
  • assess past and current work roles through the lens of change and impact
  • assess balance and energy
  • design balance and energy improvements
  • get unstuck from an ongoing problem
  • design 3 future lives/careers – your Odysseys
  • leave with a prototype to test possibilities and a Designer’s Action Plan

 

“This was thought provoking and a wonderful conversation to have with other YPO leaders. I especially appreciated the life compass and the getting unstuck ideation. It really brought home the point that how you frame the question dictates the kind of ideas you will get. That’s something I will take back to my team!” – YPO Executive