Designing Schools

In This Episode We Discuss: How Jen discovered her passion for social entrepreneurship and how she turned her passion into a thriving business model How Jen developed and nurtures her creative confidence The role of self-awareness in developing the clarity to define and set goals Three questions to develop and nurture your self-awarness The difference between entrepreneurship and an entrepreneuria...

In This Episode We Discuss: How Nancy's personal experiences with sleep led her to found End No Sleep How her experiences as an entrepreneur led to a a realization of what was missing from her education experience How she hires high school interns and the questions she asks them Her experience fleeing war, being an immigrant to the United States and what she thinks about college and the American d...

Today I'm delighted to welcome Dan Faill to the podcast for a conversation where he shares insights, with a unique mix of humor and vulnerability, that we all need to hear right now. Dan Faill is an accomplished storyteller and international speaker. Having worked for over a decade on college campuses, advocating for safe and positive student experiences, Dan now travels the country as a full-time...

In This Episode We Discuss: What we need to consider before we "start with why" How to identify your non-negotiable black sheep values, and why we don't always actually know what they are How a personal tragedy led Brant to discover the importance of understanding your core values and motivated him to help others become more self aware about what drive who we are and what we do. How to build bridg...

In today’s world the easy part is having access to all the information we need to address challenges, start new businesses or explore opportunities. The hard part however is how to make sense of that information, how to curate, organize and make sense of it so that we can use it to ultimately enhance our lives, our communities and our world. In This Episode: How the design sprint process transitio...

My favorite definition of leadership comes from David Notgrass. He says, "Transformational leaders are those who encourage creativity, recognize accomplishments, build trust and inspire a collective vision. They are role models for the beliefs and values they want to see others adopt and they believe that their audience is able to rise to the occasion."  Today I’m delighted to introduce you to the...

A few weeks ago I came across this article in my feed, "Revolutionizing the public school system: A Design sprint case study." I knew this was a person I wanted to interview and this week I'm delighted to have Daniel Andor on the podcast. Daniel is the founder and lead product designer at Durran. He helps startups go from idea to validation with real users in just a few days and design awesome dig...

This week you'll hear from me as I share an interview I did with Jason Reagin on his podcast Design Cast. In this episode I share: Why pursuing a doctoral degree was an empathy experiment The research study I did at Design39 Campus on how design thinking can be used to prepare learners with the knowledge, skills and mindsets to thrive in future workplaces and as global citizens How to break the si...

I first came across today's guest when I read, " I'm a high school sophomore. Here's how schools can teach kids to solve real world problems ." I was intrigued and impressed and knew this was a conversation I wanted to share with all of you.  Luke Harris is a New York City high school sophomore at Horace MannSchool. He enjoys taking things apart and not quite getting them back together, building c...

Today's guest believes we can democratize more access and exposure to opportunities through the development of a personal brand. Regardless of where you are in your personal branding journey, today’s guest, entrepreneur, personal branding and growth expert Brittany Krystle joins us to share the endless possibilities to what we can create for ourselves through strategically positioning ourselves on...

When I think of individuals who have leveraged technology to reinvent work, shape their destiny, create their own path, and empower others to do so as well, the first people who came to mind are entrepreneurs and luxury travel content creators Jeremy Austin and Angie Villa who founded, "The Visionary Media Group." They specialize in creating unrivaled photography, video production and social media...

This past year we all experienced the rapid acceleration of change in just about every area of our lives. From remote work to the news, our intimate relationship with technology raised more questions than answers.  Today I’m delighted to be joined by Erik Brynjolfsson as he helps us contextualize the changes we are experiencing and to explore in depth how might we shape our destiny, reinventing in...

With every social media platform now integrating stories I published a post about why leaders should leverage this medium to build deeper relationships their community. This week on the podcast I'm on the other side of the table, sharing an interview I did on this topic with Jennifer Watson, Social Media Manager at Agorapulse. In this episode we discuss: The significance of the World Economic Foru...

"The master has failed more times than the student has tried," thats the mantra today's guest abides by when leaning into new experiences to master his mindset. As you navigate the many changes 2020 has brought upon us, this week's guest, Steve Yu, CFO and Assistant Dean at the UCLA School of Law, shares stories and strategies about how to leverage a network and the role mentors can play in helpin...

For the past decade Digital Futurist Brian Fanzo has been able to predict future trends with great accuracy. One of these trends is the importance of sharing your story or as Brian says, “Press the Damn Button.” And in 2018 we saw the World Economic Forum identify Leadership and Social Influence as a trending skill.  In this Episode we Discuss: What he means by digital empathy and how he used it t...

Too often we network by proximity. In this episode Brian Fanzo shares his mantra, "press the damn button" to network with others through the sharing of stories. This is transformational because most of us build our network over time through proximity — people from your business school, or through family and friends. Not only do online platforms expand our networking opportunities but they open up...

“People don’t resist change, they resist loss.” This week I invited Bree Groff, Principal at SYPartners, to talk about how to manage grief and loss when it comes to organizational change. Bree is on a mission to help companies not simply endure change, but become skilled at—and find joy in—transformation.   For more than a decade, Bree has focused on transformation, innovation, and organizational...

"Find and be found" This should be the mantra for every secondary and post secondary student in today's world.  Each week on the show I ask our guests to share advice with new graduates who are entering a very different world of work. This week I curated the advice of past guests into one episode. Why the world of work is ripe for disruption and why you should be optimistic about the job market Ho...

We all know that collaboration is often critical to success, as Simon Sinek says “alone is hard, together is better.” But how can we be better together? It doesn’t happen by just getting together around a table or these days a zoom call, it happens when we create a culture of radical alignment.  In this episode Bob and Alex share: Their 4-step conversation framework that builds trust amongst teams...

Whether you are leading an organization or you are an individual struggling to find purpose a clear vision will help you design a strategy that leads to results. I invited Diana and Kandis from The Six to join us to talk about vision sprints, where they use design thinking to help organizations imagine what could be and then align their strategy with their vision. [3:26] What is a vision sprint an...

In Season 2 of Sprint to Success with Design Thinking we’re talking with leaders and researchers about how to bring teams together to redesign our workplaces, systems and societies. Our. guests will share how to use design thinking to have conversations that lead to action, starting with what we know are important foundations for change to thrive such as vision, culture, trust, psychological safet...

Today’s guest has a career that has taken him from working with software to working with humans allowing him to be a leader who helps organizations stay relevant. Douglas Ferguson is an entrepreneur and human-centered technologist with over 20 years of experience. He is president of Voltage Control , an Austin-based innovation workshop agency that specializes in in-person and virtual Design Sprint...

Alvin Toffler said, “The illiterate of the 21st century are not those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn?” Covid-19 has catapulted us into the future and we need to think about how to future proof ourselves. As we think about how we can adapt and thrive in times of change, workforce futurist Keith Keiting joins me this week to talk about how we can use desig...

Now that many of us are set up in our remote work environments… what comes next? As the world transitions to a new way of working Ross Chapman , head of Etch Sprints, a design consultancy within Etch Group, is curious about how might we use this crisis to work better together. In this week’s episode Ross shares why the world of work is ripe for disruption and why the opportunity is now for you to...

Now more than ever people are looking for ideas, solutions, guidance and examples. If you have an idea to share, a best practice that may not seem special to you because it’s just how you do things, know that for others it may be the greatest gift you can share. We always talk about how finding the gaps can lead to opportunities for design. As Jay found himself facilitating workshops for a number...