DESIGN CONNECTIONS > WE STARTED SOMETHING NEW WITHOUT KNOWING HOW IT WILL END

We finished our month-long?Design Connections? pilot with the Mat-Su Health Foundation in Alaska.

It all started when Kathryn Johns Swartz , Program Officer on Healthy Aging from the Mat-Su Health Foundation , got off on the wrong floor at the US Aging Conference and ran into me. I had just given the opening keynote and was wrapping up my book signing.

When I heard she was from the Mat-Su Health Foundation in Alaska, I blurted out, “Could we work on something together? I would love to come to Alaska.”

She responded, “How about you join me and our board for breakfast tomorrow.”

We both took a mutual?leap of faith. We were both looking for ways to change the narrative on aging from reductionist?to?expansionist. Breakfast led to many meetings, emails, and texts until we had an exciting project identified. Eight months later, we were in Alaska, piloting Design Connections.?

In those early days, Kathy signed off her emails with, “Starting something new:?I don’t know how this will end. p. 89.”

That page number is from my book, Design the LONG Life You Love, where ??Michael Bungay Stanier ’s (MBS) tips on starting something new are included. I updated them here with some fresh insights from our project.

1. Remember great projects often have?humble?beginnings.?Just a few good people working from their dorm rooms or garages, or in our case, a large white meeting space that doubled as a church on Sundays.

2. Take a leap of faith.?Sometimes, a door opens, and you need to choose whether to step through it. In those moments, go with your gut—like Kathy and me and our teams.

3. Start?something, even though?you don’t know?how it will end. Part of the beauty is discovering something that has not been done before.

4. Embrace?ambiguity. Ambiguity is “the quality of being open to more than one interpretation.” Be?open-minded?to what you don’t know and are about to learn and discover.

5. Launch something that?matters, and people will come. Forty older participants came to our Design Connection session for four weeks—no dropouts!

6. Work in?cycles. Ideate, test your idea, refine it, and then do another cycle and test your idea?again. MBS says he asks himself three questions: How is it going? Where am I now, and is it still the right thing to do? What would I do over the next 4-6 weeks to move this forward in a helpful way??

7. Have?positive intent. Things you worry about usually don’t happen.?And when they do, it is still part of the learning. As we say in our studio, sometimes the best ideas come from the worst places.

8. Co-design?with your end-users. People are extraordinarily creative. Share your tools and think creatively with them. Don’t tell them what the answer is; discover it together.?

9. Show up with a?smile?and?loving care?in your heart. Your love, respect, and empathy for the people whose lives you hope to improve are at the?core?of anything worth starting.

10. Fill-in the blank: ______________________. What is something you learned last time you started something new? Please email me your insights at [email protected].

This newsletter is dedicated to the?good people?of Mat-Su, Alaska, who are as independent and brave as they are kind and welcoming. Thank you for accompanying us on our journey. We couldn’t have done it without you.?

Now we continue!

Ayse

INSPIRATION

If you missed my earlier reflections on Design Connections from Alaska, you can read them here:

DESIGN CONNECTIONS > WE ARE IN ALASKA!

DESIGN CONNECTIONS > WHAT I WOULD TELL MY YOUNGER SELF

DESIGN CONNECTIONS > BREAKING-UP

DESIGN CONNECTIONS > MAGIC YOU DON’T KNOW IS HAPPENING TO YOU

For our design programs, please email Leah Caplan, VP, Design and Project Planning, Birsel + Seck, at?[email protected].

For coaching engagements, please email Jacquelyn Lane, President, 100 Coaches, at?[email protected].

For speaking engagements, please email Nancy Aaronson at?[email protected].