Designing Schools

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...

"The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.” Steven Pressfield This week I want to share stories and strategies for overcoming the fear of failure and how we can embrace change in our lives and in the workplace. A few months back I had the pleasure of being interviewed by my good friend Michael Hernandez. His podcast, Change the Narrative, is one of my abs...

Our lives are defined by the conversations we can or cannot have. Pause. Read that again - our lives are defined by the conversations we can or cannot have.  From the bedroom to the boardroom and in all the hallways in between we design conversations with others daily. Not only do we have conversations with others, there is an ongoing conversation happening all the time, perhaps the most important...

His mantra is don’t make a living, design a life. This isn’t coming from an individual who is reflecting back upon their life and sharing advice, this is coming from 22 year old Jordan Paris who is designing a life that most would envy and he is here today to share his story and strategies for how you can do so as well.  Jordan is an author, entrepreneur and podcaster who has been featured in Forb...

When people think about design thinking, it’s often in reference to the creation of new products and services. However, when you begin to adopt design thinking practices in different areas of your life you begin to develop a design mindset. IDEO identifies 8 mindsets that are fundamental to building the mindset muscle so that you can enhance and develop your ability to think like a designer. Desig...

How will you navigate the GPS of your career? Whether you are about to enter the world of work or if you are already in it, you know it’s a road filled with digital disruptions acting as blind spots along the way. As Jim Marous shares in this episode, change is happening faster than ever before yet it will never happen this slowly again. It can be challenging in times like this to stay relevant an...

What is happening?  Where is it happening? Why is it happening?    These are the three questions Dr. Tomi Kauppinen believes everyone should be asking when making sense of the world around them. Today I’m talking with Tomi about how we can all become better storytellers through what he calls information visualization.   Tomi is a professor of information visualization and cognitive systems at Aalt...

It is with great enthusiasm that I introduce you to Matthew Manos. He doesn’t just practice at the intersection of design, technology, entrepreneurship and innovation, he teaches you how as well.    He is an award winning design strategist, founder and managing director of VeryNice, a design strategy firm that designs and facilitates workshops for creative problem solving.    He’s also the assista...

Are the skills we need to thrive in a rapidly changing world ones that we have had all along? Is it that we need to learn new skills or do we need to unlearn old ones? In this episode with Duncan Wardle, former VP of Creativity and Innovation at Disney and international speaker on design thinking, shares the four skills he believes you already have that a machine cannot replace - creativity, intui...

Cultures of innovation begin with a culture of empathy. How do you create them, how do you sustain them and how do you help people develop the skills and mindsets to thrive within them. These are the questions people Ask MsQ and this is the place where she brings you stories and strategies from researchers and practitioners using design thinking to be more creative as they unlock opportunities and...