Design thinking is not new to me. I’ve used it in companies where I’ve worked, and I liked it. I also knew about Designing Your Life from Stanford University, and I was interested and intrigued by the cluster of ideas that emanated from this perspective.
I watched interviews with Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, the authors of the books, Designing Your Life. I bought the book, and I even bought the workbook that accompanies it. Yet, I made little progress on my own.
Then I found the Creative Live webinar series run by Bill and Dave. It was good. It was filmed during a live workshop, and I liked the energy of the group and the facilitators. I was motivated, but the series ended, and I returned to my normal, busy, and happy life and left design thinking behind. I realized that what I needed was accountability in order to make the changes I was seeking.
Accountability and Community
In March 2024, I found the virtual workshop, Designing Your Life for Everyone, offered by Fieldbrook Advising, a company who are certified DYL facilitators. The workshop was offered on four consecutive weeks for 3.5 hours and it was right sized for me. I live in Switzerland, which meant four Friday evenings spent delving into this topic with a cohort of people from around the world – Europe, the U.S., even Asia (which was the middle of the night for them). It was a commitment that I was eager to make. Everyone brought diverse perspectives and enthusiasm for the topic. It also provided me with the accountability and support I was seeking. I have made more progress than I anticipated, which is a really happy outcome after so much searching and several false starts.
Digging Deeper into Why I Took This Course
I’m fortunate that my life is quite well organized. I’ve been with my company for a while now. I enjoy the work I do and my role in the organization. It also fits in well with my family life with young children who keep my wife and me happily busy. Overall, life is working well for me. S
So why did I want to explore DYL in a course? I kept coming back to the question – Do I want to continue with this comfortable life, or do I want to change something? I wanted to explore this dichotomy and be able to make a conscious decision about my future and not just default to being comfortable. Is there a reason to change? What change might I make? Should I take small steps to lead to bigger steps? I could envision a scenario where I would stay with my current company until retirement. Is that what I want? Whatever the answers might be, I wanted them to be considered choices.
Change and Impact
This program really helped me address these questions. While all of the exercises, assessments, and reflections were great, the tool that was an absolute revelation for me was the Impact and Change Map. This was a 2×2 matrix where we plotted our various jobs and roles across two axes: 1) our relationship to change in our work environment; and, 2) the point of impact we have at work. Plotting both of these dimensions helped us identify what we need from our work for it to be satisfying and engaging. For example, do we like to work in a high change environment or in an environment that is perhaps more predictable? Do we like to be close to people/things our work impacts or do we prefer to operate at a more strategic level? We also added in emojis to signify how we felt about each specific role or job plotted. I work in cool job, but, as I mentioned, something was still missing.
It was when I filled out the Impact and Change Map that things became crystal clear to me. I realized that “impact” was critical to my satisfaction. It was the first time that I grasped this key component, and it became obvious to me that this is what I had been searching for – that missing satisfaction piece. The visual representation of the matrix was key for me to understand that my current role has lots of change (which I like), but not the impact I need to thrive. Now understanding how important impact is for me, I have already begun discussions with my colleague to begin to incorporate these changes, and it’s working!
Where I’m Headed Now
I’m in a really good place now. I came to DYL for Everyone questioning if I needed to change jobs or roles. I wondered if could I make changes within the role I currently have or did I need to shake things up with a new job? The Impact and Change Map crystallized all of that for me. The choices I’m now making are conscious ones based on a sound methodology. The program provided me with the accountability and support that I was seeking. The Designing Your Life framework works. and the opportunity to interact with an amazing cohort was special.
The Journey Continues
About half the cohort is continuing on in a self-directed mastermind group. We have begun to meet monthly and there is a strong spirit of motivation and support as we each continue to design lives where we can thrive.
Stephan Wehrli
Stephan Wehrli lives in Switzerland where he was born and raised. He works in Venture Capital as an Investor in HealthTech. Stephan is married and the father of two boys. He spends much of his spare time with the family, doing sports or learning Italian.
