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Designing Your Life for Women One Month Virtual Journey

September 9 – October 7, 2023

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Taught by DYL leaders including Susan Burnett, longtime business executive, and Shanice Webb, Lecturer and founder of the Designing Black Experiences course at the Stanford Life Design Lab, this innovative digital solution gives you the opportunity to learn and practice ideas and tools contained in the NYT bestselling Designing Your Life, How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life in a life design community.

You will participate in four highly interactive virtual workshops where we will work together real-time to reframe dysfunctional beliefs, explore the social and personal narratives that shape us, and dig into design tools to increase your creativity and confidence. We will use breakout discussions, and online ideation tools to share and collaborate. We will heighten a mindful awareness of where you are now, use design tools for balance and energy and improvements, practice ways to frame problems and get unstuck, gain insights into honing your decision making, and design three possible future paths – Odyssey Plans – for your life.

Between virtual workshops, the DYL App will support your journey with additional material and tools, space for reflection, and social features to share and gain insights from your community.

The following items are included in the experience

  • 3 highly interactive Zoom sessions where you will talk with other participants about your life and life design tools. (details below)
  • Enrollment in the DYL Life Design App, specifically designed to support your one-month experience with daily learning and action. (2 two-week paths – details below.)
  • Digital workbook of worksheets to support your assessments and reflections.
  • A 1.5 hour post-workshop bonus session with the instructors and fellow participants for follow-up and coaching.

Please note that the virtual journey requires the use of technology, so before you sign up for the experience, be sure you have:

  • A laptop or desktop computer that will allow you to connect to Zoom with a microphone, camera, speaker, trackpad or mouse and keyboard. Note that we will also use an online ideation platform, which does not work well on phone or Ipad, so a laptop or computer is necessary.
  • A smartphone or Ipad/tablet that will allow you to download the DYL app.
  • An internet connection of sufficient speed and stability to allow you to join a Zoom meeting with your video on.

Session Details:

  • September 9, 2023 8:30 am -1:00 pm PT Live Session 1: Design Your Compass: Kick off your DYL experience. Meet the instructors and your community, share your goals, commit to the norms for an effective life design community. You will be introduced to design thinking and the life design framework and start the conversation about the narratives that drive your life design. Practice the unique way we will work together using digital tools, accessing the DYL App, and building community over Zoom.
  • DYL App Path 1: Assess Where You Are: Reflect on why you work and map past and present work roles to identify what satisfies you and what doesn’t. Reflect on your life’s purpose and if what you do, who you are, and what you believe are coherent. Assess your own balance and energy.
  • September 23, 2023 8:30 am – 1:00 pm PT Live Session 2: Get Unstuck: Dig into balance and energy and how to get unstuck. Practice framing and reframing, and how to further think like a designer. Consider how all your assessments inform 3 versions of your future.
  • DYL App Path: Strengthen Your Discernment: Consider your own discernment process and how you make decisions. Use your compass and your own discernment to refine your 3 visions of your future.
  • October 7, 2023 8:30 am – 1:00 pm PT Live Session 3: Design Your Future: Rejoin the community to share your assessments, versions of the future, and insights gained in the previous weeks. Together use generative listening and idea boards to design tangible ways to move forward and realize your future dreams. Leave with an action plan and accountability.
  • BONUS WORKSHOP November 4, 2023 9:00 am – 10:30 am PT Live Session 4: Get Support For Changes: Get the support you need to continue your life design practice. Discover the science of change to set yourself up for success when you are making small or large life changes. Celebrate progress, share obstacles and get insight into how others have handled similar challenges. This session is optional.

 

Here’s what past participants have to say about the Journey: 

  • “This program is truly exceptional! I loved that all the talks that we had were designed to help you be more curious and open to new perspectives, ideas, and themes. I feel like a whole new world has opened up and I have the tools to navigate it.”
  • “The DYL approach, and the tools it provides to build a way forward, are really empowering. The course and community it created were energizing and fun, and made me feel very optimistic about my ability to design my own future, drawing on designer mindsets like prototyping and radical collaboration. Thank you!”
  • “Great opportunity to pause, breathe, and reflect!”
  • “The DYL Virtual Workshop is a delightful & valuable guide to help discover my potential 3 lives! I can be whoever I am and use really useful tools to make decisions. I now can keep creating a full life with a community.”

Interested in attending a future journey? Join our waitlist and we’ll let you know when a new workshop is on the way! 

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About Us

Kathy Davies

Designing Your Life Workshop Leader

Kathy Davies is the Managing Director of the Life Design Lab at Stanford University, where she teaches Product Design and life design courses, and shares life design trainings with educators globally.  She is also the co-founder of Designing Your Life Consulting and a commercial Master Trainer.

Kathy has 15 years of industry experience developing electromechanical and software products, and proudly holds five patents. She consults with Silicon Valley companies, teaches design thinking, conducts ethnographic research, and develops product strategies and concepts. Her prior experience as an engineer and product manager and leader of engineering teams gives her particular skill in understanding and connecting with technical audiences as they learn life design tools.

Kathy believes design thinking and life design can empower social change, especially around equity for women.

Susan Burnett

Designing Your Life Workshop Leader

Susan Burnett is co-founder of Designing Your Life Consulting and a Master Trainer who teaches DYL at Stanford University, in companies and in public retreats.

Susan has dedicated the last 40 years of her career to designing for individual and organizational transformation and growth. She held executive leadership roles at Hewlett-Packard, Gap Inc. Deloitte and Yahoo!, where she led large scale business changes, cultural renewal, employee engagement, and leadership development. She also led the effort to build Deloitte University – a center for leadership and culture.

Susan believes that by empowering people with the life design  process, tools and mindsets we can design new ways to work and live in a chaotic, unpredictable, and ever-changing world.  She is a regular speaker, consultant and  author.

Shanice Webb

Designing Your Life Workshop Leader

Shanice Webb is a Lecturer & Fellow in the Life Design Lab at Stanford University, where she designs curricula and teaches life design courses with a focus on equity and inclusion. She is also a certified Designing Your Life workshop provider and the founder of Transcend Thought.

With a background in health and wellness, Shanice is on a mission to help women design lives of balance, meaning, and success. She has spent the last 8 years teaching, facilitating, and designing learning experiences that center community and radical collaboration. She is also the creator of Designing Black Experiences, giving her exceptional empathy skills and a deep understanding of marginalized perspectives for tailoring life design learning experiences for diverse audiences.

Shanice’s daily intentions are to show up as her authentic self in all spaces and to help others do the same as they design their lives.

Andrea Ciafardini

Designing Your Life Workshop Mindfulness & Meditation Instructor

Andrea Ciafardini is the Mindfulness and Meditation Instructor for the DYL for Women experience.  As Founder of Holistic Connections, Inc., the company’s mission is to create transformative experiences for individuals and groups allowing for a deeper level of connection, awareness, and presence through unique integrative practices.  These include the Enneagram of the Narrative Tradition, Kundalini yoga, meditation and breathwork and Emotional Polarity Technique as ways to unwind outdated narratives in order to connect with and reveal one’s authentic voice.

Andrea’s fulfilling 15-year career is a testament to her dedication and passion for emotional and spiritual health.  Her journey has also led her to develop and facilitate workshops on forgiveness, emotional wellness and all aspects of meditation throughout the U.S and globally.  Whether in a virtual or in-person workshop, Andrea creates a compassionate, loving and safe space for participants to unwind, let go, and relax into a deeper relationship with one’s Self.

FAQs

Who goes to the Designing Your Life for Women (DYLW) workshops?

You will find women of all ages, backgrounds and career experiences participating in this workshop.  Their common goal is to design a life and career with more joy, purpose and fulfillment.  And they are usually at some kind of crossroads in their life, like starting their first job, or making a mid-career change, or deciding whether to leave or re-enter the workforce or designing their retirement. The diverse group of women really brings different perspectives which make the collaboration and community work so well.

Why do women choose the DYLW workshop?

Many women who come to our workshops have read Designing Your Life – How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life and want to do the exercises and new designs for their life in collaboration with others.  It’s especially effective to be in a room with women you don’t know, as they have no history or preconceptions about you, and they have no stake in your decisions, unlike family and friends.  So they can hear you and propose possibilities for you in a new and refreshing way.

Do you have to read the book to get the most out of the workshop?

Women have told us it’s helpful to read the book in advance, and others have said they like doing the workshop first and then read the book. It’s a personal learning preference, not a requirement to read the book in advance of attending the workshop.

Do you provide any special discounts?

Yes, we provide a 10% discount for alumnae friends and family. Your favorite alum will give you the promotion code.  We also provide a 50% discount to students and veterans, as well as a few scholarships. Please contact catherine@designingyour.life for more information.

What’s the refund policy?

We do not refund your money if you cancel, so please make sure you are able to make the date you have selected. If something unforeseen happens, please contact Catherine Dalipe at catherine@designingyour.life about your situation, and we will see if we can transfer your registration to another workshop if one is available.

Still have questions?

Contact Us.